Sign of a time
by Helwi
Summary: Avoiding all impacts from Corbenik's Last attack, Kite rush on it and shot a desperate blow. Aura is too late to stop him however, she can't help him avoid horrible consequences...
1. Cry of a loss

Name: A Sign of the Times

Rating: T

State: Chapter 01: A Cry of Loss

Concerned series: .hack//Sign, .hack//Quarantine

Concerned Characters: Currently Kite, Aura...

Pairing: No pairings as of yet.

Universe: Alternate Universe from the last phase battle of Quarantine, Alternate Timeline of Sign.

Summary: Avoiding any impact from Corbenik's Drain Heart attack, Kite rushed in on it and delivered a desperate blow. Aura was too late to stop him however; she couldn't help him avoid the horrible consequences...

Disclaimer: Every character appearing in this story is the property of Bandai, and Project .hack along with all the other people whose names I never bothered to remember. I am not using any of their names to make a profit and have no other goal than entertain myself (and hopefully others of course:) )

A/N: Second posted fanfic. This one will be one heck of a job! I'm not even sure if I can finish it. But since I'm inspired right now it'll have to do. This might be the first "chapter", but this is more like a prologue considering it's so short. The others will be longer.

Anyway, this is a .hack//Sign / .hack//Quarantine x-over. Because of this, there will be an 'alternate universe' or timeline and Kite will mostly be the center of the story. I'm not sure about pairings or anything, but if there are any, they will_ not_ be yaoi or yuri unless it's cannon.(Yeah I'm a pushover, well...) Requests are welcomed otherwise I guess...well I'll try anyway...

* * *

Chapter 01: A Cry of Loss

Kite could only stare helplessly as all of his companions were struck by the unavoidable rays of green and red arrows of light. Balmung, without any time to duck, resigned himself. BlackRose was petrified, wide-eyed as the arrows pierced her, shattering her character into pieces. Kite did not see the ones that appeared before him coming, threatening him with the same fate as his party. If not for a certain young Wavemaster's sacrifice, that would have been the case. Elk tried to look through his pained stare at Kite, expressing his remorse of his last betrayal.

Lost in the eternal flow of white, disturbed only by the presence of the Phase, Kite was no longer conscious of his real self holding the controller. It was only him, Kite, against the destroyer of The World. There was nobody to back him up now. His grip on his blades tightened; he thought of how all of them had fought until the end. Even as it became harder, they kept trying, without renouncing their task.

"No," he finally decided as the arrows came at him once again. "I'M NOT GIVING UP!" was his battle cry as he ran down on the colorless floor toward the golden eye, the last form of Corbenik, and the last of Morganna's malevolent will.

The arrows were flying toward him, missing by mere inches as he continued his hopeless attack. BlackRose's voice resonated in his head, "We'll lose if we give up!" For everyone's sake, he would not give up. His friend Orca, BlackRose and her brother, Balmung, Elk, everyone who tried their best to defend The World; all of them were counting on him.

He jumped, spinning around and bracing himself for the impact. His blades were now right on the target. Not too far from him, he heard a noise, a voice like a plea. He paid it no mind as the blades planted themselves right in the middle of the eye's pupil, piercing it.

Suddenly it seemed as if a roar of pain from The World itself was echoing in the blank void, stunning Kite. A crumbling sound could be heard. He could scarcely believe it. Did he do it? Was it over?

But his hopes did not last long. Black tears were now appearing in some parts of the previously blank field. The destruction was imminent. "So," he thought, "It was an impossible win?" The horrible, agonizing sound made him want to close his ears fast. The unblinking eye was right in front of him, piercing him and his mind. No one else was there; every player on the server had been rendered unconscious -comatose? - only he would now suffer whatever wrath the program would unleash upon him.

"No!"

The voice was clear but faint. Kite saw through his visor two thin hands encircling his waist. He turned his head and saw the sorrowful and worried look of a lavender-haired girl with sad blue eyes. Aura, the little AI who started it all, had arrived.

Before he could utter a single word however, he felt a strange sensation in his stomach. He looked down and saw that a green arrow of the Drain Heart attack had pierced him from behind. It was all over then. In the end, it was all for nothing and he would join them... he had failed them...

A whimper came from the little figure that held him, and he realized that Aura, 'The Child of Light' as Harold had called her, in a desperate effort to save him from the fate promised by the Data Drain, had tried to push him out of the way. But instead, she had been impaled too; pressed tightly against his back, restraining herself from crying out from the pain.

A jolt traveled down the arrow, shooting through the both of them. Kite felt a pain like nothing he had ever experienced before. Nothing could protect him against the horrible feeling which passed through his ears, his head and then through every part of his real body. He did not realize he was screaming; he barely registered anything that happened around him.

The black expanse of nothingness was spreading everywhere; and the eye itself was crumbling slowly, becoming less and less realistic. A strange sign was now appearing in the middle of it. Kite caught a glimpse of it, but did not have any straight thoughts. If he had, he would have seen Aura's hand slowly and spasmodically move toward the eye. He would have heard her whispering some tearful words. Suddenly, as she finished speaking, a blinding flash shot through the sign, engulfing everything in white.

Kite was not too hurt not to feel the light blinding him. As the pain diminished, another feeling sprang through him - a tearing. He somehow felt as if he was loosing a limb or perhaps something more vital. But he had no more control over his mind; his consciousness diminishing under the force of the pain. Soon, everything around him was like the tight darkness he had just left.

The sorrowful cry of Aura was heard no more.

* * *

I thank HieiWannabe for proof reading this chapter.

Reviews of all kinds are welcomed :) But please be explicit on any criticisms you may have.

No need for insults if there aren't any good reasons behind it. :p


	2. Friend of a need

State: Chapter 02: A Friend in Need

Concerned Characters: Currently Kite, Tsukasa, Sora, Mimiru.

Pairing: No pairings as of yet.

Disclaimer: See previous chapter.

A/N: I'm posting the second chapter quickly because, well, the other was more like a prologue and was very short. If you look closely, I'm sure you'll find errors with the lines and all. This is because I didn't watch the episode when I made it and didn't bother to change it since it was unimportant for the story. In theory, you don't need to watch the series again to understand it.

Sorry for the grammar and the weirdly phrased sentences this may contain, I'll try to improve it!

Enjoy!

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Chapter 02: A Friend in Need

The boy had been lying unconscious on the ground for a while now. If anyone had been there, they would have wondered how someone could fall asleep in such a place. But there was no one there – just the boy.

The dungeon was cold and slimy. Its horrid atmosphere eventually disturbed his sensitive sleep. His muscles twitched slightly, nostrils flared as if testing the air. His eyes slowly opened, and he moved his hand to get up from his face-faulted position. He stopped however, as if realizing something. was not right. He brought his hand to his eyes and noticed the sluglike texture of the dungeon which slid between his fingers.

The white-haired boy sat up, examining everything around him. He then got up, using his nearby staff as a crutch and brushing his robe. He looked disoriented, as if he did not recognize his surroundings.

Whatever musings he had were interrupted by the arrival of a young and very scantily clad girl. Armor made up much of her clothing and she carried a long sword on her back, like all Heavy Blades did. At seeing the boy Wavemaster, she exclaimed, "Ah! Somebody is already here!"

The other stiffened at her voice. Clutching his staff protectively, he cast a purple-eyed glare at her. She did not seem to take offence at this and approached as the boy backed away. But all she did was examine his staff closely, then him, before cheerfully announcing:"Wow! I never saw a Wavemaster traveling without a party! You must be very strong!"

He did not reply again; if he was an animal, he would have bared his fangs and she would have understood. But that was not the case.

"Nice to meet you then, I'm Mimiru!"

Looking away now, the boy seemed to run various possibilities through his mind.

"Huh? What is it?" The brown-haired and tanned girl seemed to finally notice his uneasiness. But before she could say another word to him, the boy took a sprite ocarina from his items and used it, disappearing in a flash of three yellow circles.

Far from this scene, that is if you can use a term of distance in the virtual online game of The World, another set of players also had a very unpleasant interaction with a certain player. The black-haired Wavemaster was all alone now;, he cursed his lack of resurrecting spells as both his comrades had fallen down by the hand of a very particular enemy.

'Those Player Killers nowadays are becoming worse!' were his last thoughts as his character turned grey and fell on the ground. Mimicking a move of sweeping his blades, the terrible dark green-haired PKer by the name of Sora grinned widely as he hummed a tune. Those days, his victims were becoming worse and worse as they were killed.- that, or he was just getting better at beating them up.

To think he would not even need to kill them if they had just given him their member addresses! Well, he still would have, for fun, but it was definitely a little frustrating to never gain anything from his chases; just a little.

Like always, he quickly moved out of the lightened path of the donjon and hid in the shadow. It was always fun to surprise his victims in a predatory way. Still singing, he kept his voice down as he went deeper in the dungeon. He doubted there was anyone else here, but he wanted to make sure if that was the case. If not, he could always sell whatever idiotic treasures were kept in the Gott Statue room.

Upon passing a series of portals that were unactivated, the black Twin Blade began to suspect he was the only adventurer in the dungeon. After using a fairy orb, Sora continued toward the last treasure room of the dungeon. After a moment of deep attention to see if anyone was here, he sighed in disapointment and pressed his hand to the door.

But as it started to open, Sora retained an exlamation of surprise, realizing someone was actually there. He readied his blades, hoping he had not lost the element of surprise. The lack of any reaction from the other player made him press further on the door, finally opening it. Sora noticed then that the player who caught his eyes on his first try was just lying, face on the ground, like some unliving corpse.

Of course, Sora did not have to be a PK to know how ridiculous this idea was. Even a "newbie" would have known that players who were dead turned gray, and disappeared if the entire party was wiped out, like the one Sora killed not too long ago. Which meant the player was just faking death. The PK smiled, did whoever was lying here think they would go unnoticed by him if they faked being dead? His victims were getting stupider as they became weaker it seemed.

Curiously, the confident man approached the unmoving figure. He was still cautious. This entire situation was suspicious, and the idea of a PC playing opposum was really strange. Upon taking a closer look, he still had a hard time deciding if the player was faking. The boy who was lying here was a Twin Blade, the same class as him, but his avatar model was different. He looked like a short teenager, his hair was of a teal-greenish color, on his face were two wave tatoos in the form of two red triangles, one in another, bottomless, which rose up on each of his cheeks. Even without counting the floppy hat he wore his clothes were surprising. They were of a red-orange color which, he was sure, was not someting a player could choose upon the character's creation. Had this guy won a contest? If so, was he strong? Sora was excited at the thought. This could be interesting!

It did not seem that he would be waking up anytime soon, though. This disappointed Sora. He was now nearly certain the player was not faking his state. If so, he must have fallen unconscious from overwork and lack of sleep. The PK sat down and started to hum again. He was not going to let some juicy prey get away from him by sleeping. His player looked at the hour on his computer clock, there was still time before his curfiew. It would have been easy to kill him now, but it scarcely be entertaining. Crossing his legs, he settled in to wait.

The first thing Kite noticed, as he started to regain consciousness, was that he was not lying on his bed. The floor was cold and hard enough to hurt his face and his back. Thinking he must have fallen off the bed during the night, Kite groaned slightly out of displeasure. He moved a hand to stand up and go back to his couch.

But it just seemed like a lot of things were wrong to him. The first was that his hand could not feel the floor, as if it was protected by some barrier. The second was that the air on his face felt too cold compared to his room's normal temperature. The last was the air that had a disgusting scent to it, and went badly with a slight humming tune he was hearing.

Blue eyes snapped open. A feeling of fear sprung, tightening his stomach muscles as he recalled the last events he had gone through before falling unconscious. He sat up straight with surpising speed... Only to be met by two sharp and familiar blades, mere inches away from his face. The man who held them smiled widely.

"Hoya there! No need to be so fast on leaving. We haven't been properly introduced yet, right?" he sing-songed with a sickeningly happy tune.

Kite looked up at the dark-green haired man. His long hair held back with a purple bandana, red eyes, and black and purple clothing were awfully familiar. The boy's eyes widened in recognition as he recalled the trapped player in Skeith's wand. A coma victim.

And he was _awake_.

"Sora?" He questioned tentatively. It looked like it was his screen name. He had only heard his name once or so. His heart was beating fast now. If Sora was alright then the others were too, right?

"Oh? So you know my name then? I guess it is to be expected after all. This is going to make things easier for us." Something was not right with his tone, Kite could feel it. It was different from the time they "met" in the wand room. It was a darker voice and the gratefulness of the last time was gone.

"What happened Sora?" Kite tried frantically, wanting to know about the other comatose players, "Did we do it? Is She gone now? Is everyone okay? You were there right?"

Out of everything that could have happened, Sora never expected to be flooded with questions asked by a total stranger and soon-to-be victim. His annoyance grew at the same rate as his puzzlement. Maybe he should have just killed him after all.

"Now stop a moment." He brought his blade to Kite's throat to make his demand clear. Kite shut up. "I don't think it is particularly wise to anger someone you've never met with senseless questions. Especially when it's _me_ you are questioning."

Kite's confusion only grew at this answer. He could understand he had showed too much excitement when seeing him, but he was astonished that Sora had failed to remember him. Was memory loss part of a coma's side effects? It was far from the first time he had realized something was wrong with all of this. _Really _ wrong.

"Well, as you seem to have calmed down, shall we proceed then?" He grinned nastily at this and pressed his blade further on Kite's throat, which, surprisingly, made him choke a little. "Your member address if you please?" Sora's voice was slow and sounded as if he was enjoying himself.

The teal-haired boy was now invaded by a strange and tempered panic. He remembered having witnessed a very similar scene from one of the phantasmal memories in the cathedral. But that was it. There could be no more of it because...

"Are you trying to PK me?" His voice held obvious confusion, but no fear. "But you know that PKing was disabled in the new version right?"

It was Sora's turn to be confused. Was this guy nuts? He had to be! If PKing was disabled, then how could he have PKed that other team not too long ago? Besides, if such a upgrade was added, he would be the first to know of it.

"Well, if you are ready to risk your life at such idiotic assumption, I'm not going to do any favors for you." At this, he slashed his weapons at Kite's neck. The red-clad one barely avoided the hit with his quick reflexes. White strips of fabric from his tunic were torn off in the process. A voice in his head he had refused to listen to until now was chanting a disheartening refrain: _This was too real_. It was not something that should happen in the game; to feel the cold in a room, to smell its rotten odor... or to feel a blade going deeper into your throat.

He quickly got up and backed away from the PK, wishing for his weapons. As soon as the thought materialized in his head, he felt a weight appearing in each hand. He clutched the powerful blades and readied them in a defensive position. He had never held blades such as these in his life, but he felt as if they were a part of him. Another oddity. He hoped he would soon have time to think clearly about what was going on. He just felt he might go crazy otherwise.

"Then you CAN fight!" the dirty excitement on the other Twin Blade's face was not hidden in the least. "This'll be fun!"

He was on Kite at those words, violently clashing his weapons against Kite's. This one held his ground as Sora used a series of complicated and multi-hit techniques. The whole attack would have already dealt a lot of damage to an ordinary target. Luckily for Kite, he was far from an ordinary player. And it was not just because of some hidden power; the red-clad Twin Blade had trained hard to fight for his friends and had come to be an extremely powerful character. Another reason why he was not too heavily affected by the attack was because he actually knew his adversary's weapons quite a bit and had used them for a while. What was more, his actual equipped blades were a few levels higher than those.

The attacks continued for a while, but his assailant seemed to tire out after a bit.

"Hum, you may be an idiot, but you know how to defend yourself." Sora had paused for a bit in his attacks. He was as frustated as he was excited by the fact that he had not been able to land any significant blows on the other player. Behind that stupid red hat were actually some hidden abilities after all.

Kite did not respond at first. He was not one to take offence at insults. But the entire situation was starting to get to him and not in a good way. Whatever had happened to Aura, The World and himself was a mystery to him. All he knew was it involved getting feelings in the game he should not have had and a coma victim brought back to life with apparently no memory of his previous state.

"You're strong, if you weren't so annoying you'd even be supportable." Sora heckled again, trying to push him off balance a little.

This time, the blue-haired kid answered back: "Well excuse me, but wasn't it _you_ that came and talked to me in the first place?" he smirked a little at that. Were PKers supposed to have those kind of regrets?

The other Twin Blade frowned. "Sleeping in such a place! I was just curious!"

"Where are we anyway?" Kite suddenly asked.

"A dungeon from Lambda server." Sora did not seem to be bothered by the stupidity of the questions anymore. He was now interested in the other Twin Blade in a deeper way. How could such a powerful player go unnoticed by everyone in the game? And so colorful a character had to be noticed, simply by his design. And he did not seem to know very much about what was currently happening in the game. Sora had a suspicion he could be a hacker, but dismissed it. Hackers would not be so ignorant. But he still knew how to fight and his level was that of a veteran. Was he from an older version then?

"Lambda you say...?" Kite did not remember going to Lambda. He had been at the Omega server when the troubles started, like everyone else.

"Has the stupid old guy never heard of Carmina Gadelica?" The dark-green haired man asked in annoyance.

Kite neither pondered on how the other player came to the conclusion that he was old, nor did he care. "Why are you here anyway? Your level is much higher than the area's." Kite noticed.

"I could ask you the same thing," retorted the man. "But if you think about it, it is normal for PKers like me to take on a lower level to practice their skills."

"Isn't this cowardice?"

"It's the way I play! It's fun," smiled the other.

"But it's not for the ones you PK." remarked Kite.

"They have it coming," Sora shrugged simply, somewhat more moodily than he had wanted to. "All I ask is to be friends with them; that's all."

"But you don't have to kill them if they don't want to."

"I already told you, stupid old guy! It's fun!" Sora was a little more cheerful when thinking of his prey. "If they can't trust me with their member addresses, then they're useless to me." He was now looking at his blades with his red eyes. "And there seems to be a lot of sacrificial pseudo heroes these days."

Kite stared intensely at Sora for a moment before talking again, "So, you are telling me that all you ask from players is their member address?"

"That's correct."

"How about I give you mine?"

"_WHAT_!!" Of everything he had heard the weirdo say thus far, this was definitely the craziest! Was he not aware of Sora's reputation? Even knowing it, he could still ask for that?! It was the first time since his newbie days that another player had proposed to give him his member address - and totally out of their own, free will! A strange feeling he had not felt for a while started to rise from his stomach. Like crazy dancing butterflies or something.

"Well as long as you let me know yours," continued Kite with a shy smile, "I'm ready to be friends with you."

"Aren't you a little ahead of yourself? Asking for it after I nearly wiped the floor with you?" He was weary now, he was still talking in hopes of impressing the other, but knew he had shown his weakness to the veteran. "And trying to moralize me isn't something I'm going to tolerate."

"I'm not going to moralize you." Promised Kite, "But if you form a party with me, I'd like that you don't do PKing then."

"You're thinking of things that may never be." Sora smirked "Things such as a party and all."

"Isn't it what the member address system is primarily made for?"

"It is, But this doesn't mean I'll go for it though" He was lying. He was excited at the idea of going along with such a powerful ally. And a Twin Blade like him at that.

"Feel free, but I'm not going to let anyone get Pked before my eyes."

Sora grinned, but chose not to answer. After his ruthless assault had been so easily shrugged off by the other player, he would not have dared to try anyway.

They exchanged their member addresses. However, Sora was prevented from questioning his new ally by the arrival of his curfew. Disappointed but still happy, the player logged out, leaving his powerful character behind and going back to his real self, the ten year old Ryou Misaki, who was forced to go to sleep.

The only being still in the dungeon was a very disoriented Twin Blade, left to ponder his present and future decisions.

* * *

I thank HieiWannabe for proof-reading this chapter.

A/N: Here it is. Why would I choose Sora? Dunno, he just seemed good for the job. He is hard to write, I don't know if he was good in it...

The plot may take time to develop since I'm making it as I write. Review "If you please"!:p


	3. Fall of a faith

State: Chapter 03: A Fall of Faith

Concerned Characters: Kite, Tsukasa, Bear.

Pairing: No pairings as of yet

Disclaimer: See chapter 01.

A/N: All right, I wanted to post this chapter sooner, but I was having some difficulties with the .hack//sign timeline setting. Since it isn't the happiest chapter in the bunch (no, really?), I'll upload the fourth soon to compensate. Better not feeling too down while reading I think...well it depends...

Also, I'm going to take liberty on this story, even though I'll follow the storyline of sign for a while. And I forgot to mention the fact that I never played the game, so I'm probably going to do some errors on various stuffs. If you see one, I'll be glad to be informed on this. This is why I'm sorry I couldn't answer your question about Kite's weapon, Frostbite, but I believe his current weapon(s) level should be at least as high as the Prepare to Die blades Moonstone gave him.

Enjoy as you can!

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Chapter 03: Fall of a faith

He could not tell anymore how many hours he spent here, nor did he care. The young Wavemaster was walking around Mac Anu without much to do, but without dark thoughts either. In fact, his mind could have as well been empty, it would not do much differences. Now he had a way to really think of The World's illusion as real, he couldn't spoil the luck. Maybe some others would have felt terrified; anguishing at the idea of getting trapped in a video game, but Tsukasa wasn't one of those people. He wasn't sure how long it was since he wanted to get away from his other life; he didn't try to think of "the other world". His previous life was no more than a blurred image, glimpse of disheartening moments without many senses to them.

He could just feel they were nasty.

He sat on the edge of the canal; legs moving slowly, below, the slow flow of water could be heard. Some boats with players or NPCs inside were calmly gliding across the surface. Realistic ducks sometimes had to avoid them.

The Delta server was the easiest and most popular of the five servers. It was the beginner's server so a lot of people would meet here. Tsukasa had never met anyone here himself, but even now he could see a group of friends chatting joyously away from him. He had no need for that, he thought, he felt better when he was alone.

His reflection eventually came to the pesky Heavy Blade he met in the dungeon. The girl had found him later at the Chaos Gate and kept following him. She was very straight; one kind of person he disliked.

He played with his staff a moment, lazily watching another boat pass by. Why did they keep annoying him? First the rude Heavy Blade girl, then, the Blademaster moralist. Why did they try making him think they cared? He knew nobody cared about anything but themselves! This was something his other life taught him.

His eyes widened suddenly as he recognized the man in the boat he was staring at. It was one of the Crimson Knights, an ingame organization which were self-proclaimed justice renders. He had an unfortunate meeting with them not too long ago and the look the knight was giving him showed he had not forgotten it, and was ready to settle matters in an merciless way if necessary.

Tsukasa wisely decided it was time to leave. He quickly got up, and hid in the crowd.

The red-clad Twin Blade who arrived in the advanced metropolis of Carmina Gadelica some hours after this made much less noise. One of the main reasons for this was because it was quite late. There were very few players left in town, as Kite noticed. Which just meant he would not see his new partner for a while, considering he respected some curfew.

He had pondered his decision for some time before asking for a partnership with the PK. He had not seemed responsible enough for Kite to trust him with his true intentions, but he was still a good fighter and the only familiar face he encountered since his awakening -as well as being the only face he had met, actually. If Kite's situation was as bad as he currently concluded, he would need any help he could find.

The reason why he was only visiting the root town now was because he was feeling better after thinking of everything which had happened while he was alone. He had gone back to the area's field however; even with his warm clothes, he had still felt the cold of the dungeon.

He paused and looked at his gloved hand. The reason he was not able to feel the floor when he woke up was because he was now feeling the tight texture between each of his fingers. He was no longer holding his controller, no longer pressing buttons to play or open the menus, which caused him some troubles to figure out how to send his member address. Even now, he was not sure how he was doing it, how it was possible. He felt every movement of air around him, every scent which was coming from the numerous shops of the town, as if he was there physically.

Nobody, nothing but himself was moving his character body, as if he had really "become" his avatar. It had to be some trick or illusion. 'But,' he thought, 'even if it is an illusion, it will be real for me. My mind will link anything happening to me as real, even blades that cut through me.'

He shivered a little, remembering how close to feeling death he had actually been. Only his logical sense and calm mien he acquired while playing the game had suppressed his panic when he completely realized the situation. He now had no doubt his current situation had something to do with Corbenik and Aura's last meddling. And what about Aura and the others? BlackRose, Balmung, Elk...was everyone here too? He doubted it somehow. They were all data drained before the strange white light flashed. But Aura? She had been there too and the Twin Blade had a feeling she was a key element as to what had happened. But she had been data drained at the same time he had. She already was data drained before, only...

Then it hit him. The reason Aura was not with him anymore was probably because she was reduced into pieces of data like before! Or was he wrong? Was there any reason for him to land on a strange World where sensations were real and people you knew did not know you anymore?

He sighed. This was just so much more than what he could actually handle. His brain was overflowing with crazy theories and his body was shaking in worry about everything, everyone, including himself.

Turning around, the player looked at the Chaos Gate he had just used as a means of traveling. The Chaos Gate was a logging out point as well as logging in. On any normal day, he probably would have logged out by now and would have gone to sleep. However, the curious events which were happening gave him the strange feeling it would not work this time. As he tried to do it anyway, a red flashing error message and a very disturbing feeling prevented him.

Kite laughed humorlessly at this. All this situation would have been no more than a science fiction subplot to him merely months before. Now it was just going along with every other particularity of the game. But this was just too much for a fourteen year old boy! He needed to feel safe again for a while, away from the game, away from all this. He wanted to see his house again now, his family, his friends, their faces...their...faces..?

The faces of his family...

The...faces of his friends...

Orca's face...

Orca's...name..?

...Orca's real name...

...everyone's real names...his friends... his family... they were...

...where were they..? Where were their names..?

He couldn't...he couldn't manage to...find them...in his head...Where were their names? Where were their faces..? He couldn't put names on the figures, nor faces.

He could hear his heart rate increase as he searched frantically for an answer. Everyone from the word...the real world...he couldn't see them. He could only see those who were in The World, the game.

He held his head with his gloved hands; his face was covered with sweats, his breathing loud. How could anybody ever forget his parent's identity? His entire family's? His friend's? It wasn't making any sense! 'There is no way I can forget them! I can't forget them! I can't forget myself! I'm not just Kite the Twin Blade, I am...I am...'

I...

...me..? I am...

The blue-haired teen stopped moving entirely and opened his eyes wide. The rare people who passed by assumed at his expression the player behind the Character was AFK. That he was far from the game and had left his character without any control. In a way, they would have been right. Kite was far away from any places within The World, but he was even farther away from any keyboard.

A dark-haired Wavemaster came suddenly from the Chaos Gate. He was all new to this server and upon seeing the frozen player, he could not help but ask:

"Hey, what's up with you?"

The question barely reached the red-tattooed boy. But from the depths of his scrambled thoughts, a familiar sentence, which Kite had heard pronounced by a very particular victim of the game, came to his lips without his agreement. In a mutter, he said:

"I... only exist in... The World...?"

Far from this reality, a man was rendered unconscious by a very new attack. Head on the keyboard, the words, "SYSTEM ERROR" flashing red in his goggles, the player known as Silver Knight from the Crimson Knights would not be returning to the game for a while.

The Theta server was calm enough when a Blademaster appeared at the Chaos Gate. His partner, the Wavemaster BT left the game some time ago. Bear thought of leaving as well. It was late after all. His thoughts drifted to what awaited him in the real world.

He had not been a good father; he knew it, which is why it turned out this way. He once heard BT hinting to him that he was transposing his fatherly role to players in the game. She was not wrong with that, he reflected, he was definitely making his character play the role he had failed at in real life, although it was not really intentional. Mimiru was a young girl and, though they were both in a friendly relationship, he could scarcely help but transfer some of his paternal instincts to her. But he was not Mimiru's father; neither was he a father to anyone else in the game. However...

Bear had seen his son in the game not too long ago. This one used the opportunity to ask for money from his father. Something which Bear had a hard time refusing, guilt working against him in this. There was not much to do about it now, he realized; it would be better to log out for a while. Soon the Bear character was no more, leaving only the tired face of his player behind it. Like he often stated, Ryo Sakuma looked quite old, even at 47. This was partly because of his tiring work as a novelist. The man took off his headset and readied himself to go to sleep. He decided to check the event of the game one last time at the BBS. The Board was usually full of information, along with a lot of doubtful rumors which circulated around. Ryo wasn't one to believe in those things, but knew they often contained a part of true in them.

One new subject caught his attention. It referred to a player disappearance. A Crimson knight apparently. The man clicked it.

**From: Zojerk**

**Subject: Silver Knight disappearance**

**I don't know what happened. He asked me to keep the entry of a dungeon on Theta server. He wanted to see some Wavemaster suspect that was inside. But he never came out. I saw the Wavemaster though, he was white-haired and was wearing brown and grey clothing. When I went to the dungeon, Silver Knight wasn't here. And he didn't answer my messages. If anyone knows anything about Silver Knight or the other guy please, could you share the information?**

Ryo contemplated the message for a while. He had heard that Zojerk was one of the Knight's admirers so he must not be lying when he said he could not contact him. Still, it did not necessarily mean the Knight was in danger or anything. Ryo was hardly an acquaintance of the Crimson Knights so this particular news was not worrying to him. It was the mention of the White-haired Wavemaster which was intriguing for him. Could this be the player he saw earlier at the field? The one who played with the Monsieur? The boy had looked so insecure back then, Ryo doubted it. But still...

This was how the player behind the Blademaster Bear finished his day and prepared himself for a disturbed sleep. He was unaware of the important events which would soon take place, and even less that he would play a major role in them.

Most people usually slept at this hour. But it was not the case for the white-haired boy. He was back in Mac Anu after what happened in the dungeon. He was not sure who was that voice that spoke to him at that time, nor did he know where that monster came from. He had a high suspicion they were linked. The woman voice said she would protect him and the monster saved him from Silver Knight, doing something which killed his PC in one blow. In any case, there were chances that the incident and his current condition were not purely coincidental. The cat PC...

He was not really willing to think about it. Even now, he did not feel as concerned as he should have been. After all, he could not care less if he never went back to the ludicrous "real world". For now, this World was just as real. Still, something was nagging him. He looked down at his clothes. They were warm, but not enough it seemed. The fresh air coming from the river was unpleasant to him. He stood up from his spot and started walking to the middle of the town, trying to calm his nerves. Actually, the reason why he was bothered was not because of the wind. It just seemed that his mind would not shut off. As he kept trying he could not stop his activity. He just could not sleep.

This was annoying.

Unaware of him, another player was actually sharing the same fate. This particular red-clad boy was roaming the town of Carmina Gadelica, looking at the shops to keep himself busy. A lot of things were actually scaring him and it was better for him to ignore them for a while. But his insomnia was killing him. He tried to buy and eat some of the foods that were being sold, and was surprised to find they were edible. He never found any purpose in having food shops in the game, nor did he find he particularly needed them now, but it was still distracting. He was just glad there were no players who noticed him doing so, or else there would be serious questions.

He took a yellow candy from his stocked items and looked at it, in deep thought. Whatever had happened to his friends, he did not know. All he was sure of was eating candies at a shop would not help. He was much more in control of himself now and could think of the last battle again without getting disturbing feelings. Somehow, The World he knew was no longer the same...and apparently neither was he. He put the candy in his inventory again; the boy was just feeling like investigating now. Whatever had happened to him and everyone...? He had to know.

Clenching his fist in resolution, he moved toward the gate. He had crossed some players in the way, such as the Long Arm Cima, but neither she nor anybody else seemed to recognize him. So, Sora was not the only one. Which meant the problem was indeed in The World itself and not in the players. He was not sure if there would be any leads for him to follow. Last time, it was BlackRose who took him to the cathedral. Maybe this would be a dead end, but he still had to try. It was Aura's cathedral after all, so...

With this tiny hope in his heart, the Twin Blade proceeded in transferring himself to Mac Anu, the root town of the Delta server. As he arrived, he noted that Mac Anu was still populated even at this hour. One particular Wavemaster threw a dirty look as the Twin Blade suddenly appeared at the gate. Paying the other boy no mind, Kite proceeded in entering the coordinates for the cathedral field. He repeated the three words in his head. "Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground" now held a special place in his heart. A feeling he could not pinpoint was linked to them. He warped, surrounded by three circles of yellow light.

The cathedral was standing before him, like it always had. It seemed neither the root towns, the dungeons nor the cathedral had changed one bit. Actually, they looked even better than the last time he visited them - they were free of corruption. This was paradoxical since he assumed the problem was not coming from the players, but The World itself. Why was it looking the same then?

His legs were a little shaky, but he moved forward none the less. He was not sure anymore if his body had never belonged to him before. It felt like he had always used it. But he knew this assumption was stupid. He was from the real world after all. Or was he? In truth, this World seemed just as real to his sensations. And... What was the other world like? He couldn't...

Arriving at the door, the teal-haired boy abandoned all his stray thoughts and concentrated wholeheartedly into his mission. If there were any clues to Aura's location, it had to be there. He stared a moment at the door in silence before taking a long breath and opening it.

For a while, he could not see a thing. The darkness in the entryway made him feel like the whole church was in complete obscurity. It was quite luminous actually, but his eyes had a harder time figuring it out then at his previous visits. Of course, he had seen it all from his goggles at those times. Somehow, this made it all too unreal for him as he stared at the central stone monument of the church.

All his hopes were gone in an instant.

For the first time since his awakening, he did not feel his legs moving forward, or his heart give a sickening lurch. He was too far removed from it all. Even as he came to a halt before the pedestal, he could hardly believe it.

The statue of Aura... The girl was gone.

_Aura was gone._

As if she was never here.

_Aura... _

_And everyone..._

A block of reality hit his mind and he fell down in front of the stone; and with nothing to stop his fall, he hit the ground painfully. But it was nowhere near as painful as the sudden heartache he felt. His hands were supporting his upper body, but they were trembling. His eyes were trying to stay open, but they were watering. He tried to pronounce something, but his throat was closed tightly.

Nothing was alright anymore.

Everything had been wrong from the beginning.

And he didn't know where he was standing now.

Just what was this world?

Who was he?

And..._wha_t was he?

* * *

I thank HieiWannabe for proof-reading this chapter.

A/N2: I took the term AFK (Away From Keyboard) from Another Birth, it describe the state of Mimiru in 'I can't remember which episode'. Anyway, it just means the player left his computer while the player is still in the game, frozen. Well, I'm sure everybody knows this already but...

Funnily enough, notice AFK also means Azure Flame Kite. I just couldn't help it! XD

I completely made up the post of course (when I talk about the 'liberty' I take); I took Zojerk from .hack wiki. At first, I put a knight name, but I wasn't sure if the knights would have posted such event on the board.

Well, no Sora on this chap, though he'll come around eventually. The meeting of the other characters will take some time, especially for Tsukasa. I really can't rush this one. And, of course, Kite didn't realize yet he had gone back to the past. Well, personally I don't think I would have concluded to this either. I mean, really, this is a video game after all. What is painful for him is that he doesn't know what to do anymore. And of course there is all this 'convenient memory loss' to avoid his background completely and to include even more worries to him.

The next chapter wont be as down as this one. And again, review if you have anything to say...


	4. Right of a will

State: Chapter 04: The Right from the will

Concerned Characters: Kite, Tsukasa, Sora, Bear, Mimiru...

Pairing: non pairing(?)

Disclamer: Chapter 01 for it.

A/N: Well, here is chapter four. I'm starting to take some scenes from the serie but most events will still be centered on Kite anyway. It's more to fix everything into a possible timeline, though I think there is going to be some changes about the time periods because I dont really feel like filing the story with too much pointless event.

Also, I'm going to be busy for a while, so I probably wont update before a week or so. Again, sorry for the grammar and all...

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 04: The Right from the Will

The white-haired Wavemaster pushed the grand door and looked inside with displeasure. He was trying to find tranquility and peace. It seemed he couldn't just sleep and forget so he was looking for a deserted field to spend his time. He knew the cathedral didn't have any monsters in it. It was bothersome someone was already here. He recalled having seen the player at the Chaos Gate.

The other player stood up as Tsukasa opened the door. What was he doing here anyway? Without much then a glance in his direction, the red-claded boy stormed past him to the exit. The Wavemaster had the impression he heard the other mutter "sorry", but it could have been his imagination.

Tsukasa stepped in the cathedral and sat on a bench, closing his eyes for a while. At least the other guy didn't bother him. After a while, he was relaxed enough to let his eyes wander in the church, from the nice vitrals to the reflecting floor. A glips of light on it made him look more attentively. Water was on the floor, in front of the pedestral, shimering with beauty. The boy gazed at it in amazement and wonder. He didn't remember seeing this last time he came here.

The sun of the Theta server was high as always. Bear the player sat on a fence near the Grunty Ranch, apparently in deep thought. This morning, the blue tatooed warrior had check the BBS again to read the responses. He had been surprised to see messages of worried players on the thread. The mention of the Wavemaster didn't go unnoticed either. He also recieved a mail from his partner Mimiru telling him to wait at Dun Loireag for her. Apparently, she had important things to tell him about this. As he waited, he saw the white-haired Wavemaster going to the Grunty Ranch and decided to wait for him outside. There was nothing better than hearing the truth from the source.

The boy came out of the ranch and Bear called him.

"Yo!" The boy stopped, looking at him in annoyance. Bear continued."Have you read the board recently?"

The Wavemaster went stiff, holding his breath, apparently displeased with his enconter with the Blademaster.

"This is not my problem!"

"That's fine then." Finaly answered Bear. He didn't needed to press further.

The boy quickly parted with him. Bear didn't mind. He could see his female compagnon comming to him from afar. Maybe some of the strange things which were happening could be explained then.

Of course, he didn't know yet how far from his definition of "strange" those events were.

Bursting, Passed Over, Aqua Field was a very low level area. Actualy, it was made for the fresh beginers. Its estimated level was of 1. One could wonder what was the strong Twin Blade doing in such a field. He was clutched near the dungeon. Its nauseous atmosphere was making his nostril flinch, but he still wasn't moving. The last scenery of the cathedral was still in his head. His eyes were dry from crying and his nose was stuffed. He hated this. It was like a reminiscence of his own illusionnal life.

Still, he couldn't stand this. this feeling of despair, he felt powerless and far from any hope. When Carmina Gadelica was corrupted, when Mia disapeared, when he lost the Bracelet... he had never felt so down. He could still count on the others then. Everyone was fighting to do something. He had been wrong in thinking he was alone. At this time he had everyone. At this time he had BlackRose.

BlackRose...

It was painful to think of Orca. He felt like he forgot him the most of all. The others, Elk, Mia... It was hard to even remind himself of them without causing his tears to flow again. But somehow, it was different with BlackRose. When he thought of her, he heard her yelling, strong and determined voice. Telling him how much of an idiot he was by mopping around, pushing him forward like she always did.

She wasn't here anymore

She wouldn't push him again. It was then that he realised what it was he felt when he thought of her. It was guilt. She wouldn't push him anymore and he was acting in complete contradiction with what she encouraged him to.

_"I wouln't have gone this far without you"_

_Neither would I have, BlackRose._

_"So...what am I supposed to do when you start _doubting yourself_!"_

_Doubting my own existence..._

_"How am I supposed to cope? Does a big sister have to be happy?"_

_Of course not..._

_"I... I want to..."_

_please don't cry..._

_"Wha?... I'm not crying! You can't even see me so dont make any assumption!"_

_She never shown her tears... she tried to hide them even from me..._

_That's right._

Muscles twiched, soon he was on his feet, confidence replacing all his worries. Yes, he couldn't fall them. He wouln't fall them all... He had to find some answers. He had to find them. He had to find Aura... no matter where she was now. His throat was sore from emotion and the smile on his face looked more like a forced smirk, but his resolution was high again. He started running on the field, preparing himself to leave. The wind which wistled in his ears revived him. For the first time since his awakening, he was starting to appreciate his feelings.

He left the field in three circles of light.

Dun Loireag had its natural peaceful impression on players. Bear was feeling it and it was calming him down. All this situation, All this was starting to lose all its senses. But at the same time... He couldn't reflect well on this. Mimiru just left him to his thoughts. He really wasn't sure anymore.

According to her, the Wavemaster was a boy named Tsukasa who had somehow been involved with the Crimson Knights by hanging around a strange edited cat character. What was appealing his perplexity in all this was the fact the Wavemaster assured Mimiru he couldn't log out. Was this even possible? Did this mean he somehow couldn't reach his terminal anymore? Was his main body lost?

He shivered at this thought. But all those ideas were pure fictions right? There was no way someone could still be in the game if this someone's main body was lost! ...was there?

But then, why could he perfectly imagine it?...

Maybe he was getting ahead of himself. If the boy was as rude as Mimiru seemt to think, then there were chances he wasn't completely honest with her. And he barely knew the boy himself, he'll probably have to wait and see.

A quick beeping echoed in his visor. It was signaling the arrival of the flashmail he was waiting from his partner B.T.. He did a double take at what was written. Apparently, his Wavemaster compagnon was pissed. As she was leveling alone, she was PKed by some Twin Blade. Bear sighed, it was to be expected, leveling alone was dangerous for a Wavemaster. She had tipped she would join him soon, so he waited. He was also going to have to explain his dilema to her later, tomorow with Mimiru.

As Kite arrived in Mac Anu, He direcly looked in his flashmail option to try and contact his newest ally. He didn't knew what time it was but he assumed it was day since the town was crowded. Upon looking to his adresses list, he noted there was only Sora's. He wasn't really surprised at this, considering everything which happened. He checked to see if anything else was missing, but didn't found anything peculiar about his items or his keywords lits. He tried to type a quick message, however, he wasn't sure how to proceed. It looked like some flat screen had appeared before his eyes which he tried to reach with his bare hand. With most difficulties, he managed to put a short text in and sent it.

Tired from his hard work, he was looking around grogily, apparently still exausted from his lack of sleep, when the sight of a very familiar person caught his gaze. His breath was cut short, his eyes were wide, he just couldn't believe it. A mixture of feelings he could barely comprehend made his heart beat faster. All his common senses disappeared as he rushed wildly toward the figure. Slowly, what he could understand as intense relieves, joy and fondness made their way to his face. He was smiling nearly insanly as he runned to the female Heavy Blade. BlackRose! BlackRose was here! She whas here! She is here! She is...

" Are you looking for something?"

The Twin Blade had stopped dead in his track, all his previous emotions had fadded in an instant and were replaced by preplexity. Before him stood a lightly dressed Heavy Blade whose avatar was the same as his partner, but was different in any other aspect. Instead of light pink hair, hers was brown, she didn't had wine colored eyes either, hers were green, and, although she was tanned around the same shade, she didn't have BlackRose's yellow markings. Hers were different on her skin. Her armor was also red-brown contrary to BlackRose's which was red-pinkish.

He actualy remembered her.

"Mimiru?" He slipped without thinking.

"Huh? do we know each other?" asked the girl, apparently surprised; "Or is this some kind of messages for me?"

Kite was at a loss. He didn't knew what to reply anymore. He had been stupid. How could he had even thought she could have been BlackRose? Now, he could clearly see all the differences. There were a lot of similar avatars in the game. He even remembered the Wavemaster in the church had Elk's avatar. Come to think of it, he looked familiar too...

Again, he felt a rush of sadness at the thought of Elk and shook his head to erase it. The girl saw this and frowned.

"It's nothing then? Suit yourself if you don't wanna talk, but it's very rude to not answer to one's question!"

This simple sentence made him remember his first encounter with BlackRose. Through painful efforts, he answered.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else, nevermind, sorry for bothering you."

With this, he left the very perplexed Heavy Bade and proceeded in going further in the town. He was going to wait for Sora's reply.

'What was that all about?' questioned herself Mimiru as the boy left. It was really strange, first he was rushing toward her like she was Santa Claus, the next second he looked like all the weight of the Earth had fallen on his shoulers. In a way, she felt a little outraged at this. What was she, a monster? But she guessed such mistakes could happen... and at least he was polite enough to excuse himself, contrary to a _certain Wavemaster_ she met. Her thought darkened at this. Was it really possible that... but it couldn't be, could it?

She had never heard of a player who couldn't log out before. And if what she heard from the knights were true, then he was involved with Hackers... no it couldn't be true! He might have been a noisy brat but he certainly couldn't be in such black buisness. And his eyes... his expression when she said he jut had to shut his terminal...

It was pure terror...

_As if he realised... he wasn't where he was supposed to be..._

Mimiru's head was boiling from all those thoughts. She really wasn't good with those stuff! She usualy left all the thinking to Bear. He was 'the old man' after all, he could manage the thinking. She was good at pushing buttons to move a sword and that's what she did! There was no need to ad others problems! This is why she was a solo character! The others always have a tendency to drag you down!

But then...

Tsukasa's name came to her mind again. She might not like hanging around party, but it didn't mean she could walk away when someone was in trouble. And Tsukasa _was _in trouble. She was starting to regret having slapped him, he may never contact her again. What would become of him then?

She stepped to the Chaos Gate and logged out. She had to check the Board again.

Sora was more astonished than Mimiru once he came out of the dungeon. It was a low level dugeon from Delta server. He had been here in search of a prey and hadn't been disappointed when he saw the white-haired Wavemaster coming here. What had rendered him speachless however, was the fact that his prey escaped him _by going through a wall_. There wasn't much doubt for this one, he must have been a Hacker. Come to think of it, wasn't there talks of it in the board? About some Wavemaster who was seeked by the knights? He'll have to check this.

He was ready to return to town when a beeping noise came to his ears. A flashmail? If he had been surprised before by the boy's disapperance, it was nothing compared to what he felt now. What the hell happened nowadays? Was this a time for 'meeting of all weirdnesses'? First, the sleeping red guy, then the vanishing Wavemaster, then...What the hell was this rubbish? His confusion was big as he finished reading.

**[K+#2 ('d ]}^ t0 f°4m § p^`ty, m++[ m& at Mac A"u]**

Did this even mean anything? And who was "K+#2" anyway? The only thing the PK could try to decipher was "Mac A"u" which was probably Mac Anu. It still wasn't helping him knowing who sent him this. Was it the Wavemaster? There was no way he could have noticed he was being followed, the Twin Blade was sure of this. How would he have got his member address? He didn't even gave it yet! But who could it be then?

There was only one way to find out. Sora selected the option to warp out of the field, and let himself get teleported to the aquatic city of Mac Anu.

Kite was a little farther from the gate than he wanted to be. Those knights were actualy quite impressive, especialy in number. Their presence was annoying him, tough it wasn't just because they didn't let him go nearer to the gate: Those people were completely new to him. It was the first time since he came here he saw something so utterly different from what he was used to from the players. It was something to not be remembered by anyone, it was something else to see an organisation which was no more from where he was from. He had his own ideas on all this, but he refused to acknowledge them just yet. He needed further proofs.

Luckily, he was distracted by the arrival of the green-haired player. He sure took his time! The knights inspected him and he gave them one of his nastiest smile before proceeding to the town. Kite called him.

"Hey! You came!"

Sora turned and looked at him suspiciously. Kite felt heat going to his cheeks. Did he do something wrong?

"So, it was you." reasoned the PK.

"Me what?" questioned kite."What did I do?"

"Who sent me that weird flashmail."

"Huh? Yes I flashmailed you but... I don't really see what's so weird about that."

"Flashmailing isn't the problem, it's the contents! What kind of idiot would send a garbage message like this?" he seemed angered for some reason.

"Garbage?" now, this was strange...

"Here, take a look." the Twin Blade said while sending a copy of his message to Kite. He looked at it in amazement. Was it even possible? He remembered typing it right, why was it looking like this? It looked like Aura's... but it couldn't be...

"So, care to explain?" edged the other.

"I, I, don't understand..." he had to find some explanation, or else he'll have to confide everything. " I must've... There must be... some... problem in the speech translating program in the message! That's it! It must be that!" he laughed awkwardly at this. Who would believe that?

"Hum... " Sora looked at him, unbelieving, Kite gulped." I suppose it could be related to some problems on your software due to, oh, I don't know..." the boy felt sweats on his back while the other was inspecting him, a triumphant look on his face" an outdated version working under a newer update of the game!"

'Huh???' " Err, Yes! That must be it! You're right! hehe, I gotta change my version fast." Kite was laughing in relief this time. It was a good thing the other Twin Blade considered him as an old player, or else he wouldn't have much choice than including him completely in his problems. And he didn't wanted to do this unless it was necessay. He didn't really trusted him yet either.

"Well, anyway, why did you called me again? Your messages was butchered." remembered Sora.

"It was to form a party with you. I intended to go exploring some places and..." Kite sopped when he noticed Sora's face was unreadable.

"Sheesh...well," The PK seemed to regain his previous attitude. " You're lucky, I'm in the mood to play today" He grinned cunningly.

Kite smiled back. He was starting to get used to his manners. "_Shall we proceed then?" _he joked. He sent him an invitation to a party. The other seemed to ponder for a while before accepting.

"Your name is really 'K something' then?" He asked.

"It's Kite. Don't you have it on your list?" Kite wondered.

"No, it's as unreadable as your mail."

"Really?" Kite was surprised. " Why didn't you say so when I gave it to you?"

"I don't read the names people give me. Actualy I don't even display them on the screen. It's way funnier!" he clamed.

Kite raised an eyebrow at this but made no comment. This was bad. If what Sora said was true, then he had been wandering around with a corrupted name and aroused suspicion of people already! Well, this wasn't really so bad, since in the net, there were quite some varied names. Being called "K+#2" wasn't as worse as not being able to type a flashmail correctly. It was even more important since it was his only mean of 'far away' comunication. He couldn't even check the Board! Or doing anything else 'RL' related...

He shook off his thoughts. No, he'd better not go into this again.

"So, what are you planing on exploring" Sora holded his knowing smirk "Because if you plan to get the Wavemaster, you're too, late, for, that!" He sang in his dark voice.

"Huh? The Wavemaster?" asked Kite," What Wavemaster?"

"What do you mean what Wavemaster?" Sora was bemused " The one everybody is talking about of course! Haven't you read the Board? Didn't you know this is why the knight guys are camped at the gate? It's to get'im!"

"So they don't do this everyday?" Kite was nearly expecting a positive answer at this. Although actualy, he had wondered what they were doing here himself.

"No they don't, but you're right to assume it." noted Sora with disdain, "Those laws enforcer don't know their place, However, they are fun to play with!" he grinned at this." Anyway, it seems that this guy have beaten their leader to a pulp and that they're out to get him for that. Although, considering what he can do, this'll be fun!"

"What he can do?" Kite was starting to get interested.

"Hehe! This is a Hacker for you! Always out of the rules!"

"A Hacker?"

"You know," started the PK, "when I first saw you, I assumed _you _were a Hacker" he looked at him with interest.

"I'm not a Hacker!" Kite was ready to deny it even now. His character may be writeprotected against deletion, it didn't mean he had Hacked it. It was all the Bracelet's power anyway! And he didn't have it anymore...

"I figured that" continued the other," After all, _you_ weren't doing anything, the other passed through a wall."

"Really?" A simple hack? But in The World, it wasn't simple... unless you were a wandering AI...

"Indeed, wouldn't it be nice to have him with us?" His face showed his exitement. Kite was taken aback. He didn't though Sora was more than a solo player but he guessed he liked playing with people of his caliber. 'Meaning outlaw Hackers and weird guys like me' thought Kite bitterly, 'oh joy!'.

"Well, fine we'll look for him if you want," agreed Kite, " but before that, wont you come with me in a party? There's some grounds I'd like to check for.... something..." he wanted to look for some clues, and it would be hard to find them alone." we can look for your hacker after if you want."

"Meh, hearing you make me feels like you don't like Hacker." his nasty smile was still on his lip.

'Right now, I dispise anything else than some good rest.' groaned Kite low, but he only said out loud " Of course not! you're seeing things Sora! Lets just go okay?" the smile he made then would scare even Sora had he directly looked at it. Lukily, both of them were turned to the Chaos Gate, ready for another restless day.

* * *

A/N2: Here some new indications about Kite's condition. Of course, it's slightly different from Tsukasa's but it is to be expected, they didn't came here by the same way after all.

It's funny Kite mentioned owtlaws hackers and put himself out of the category, since this is how everyone saw him in the game. But I dont really think he see himself as such considering he didn't do really anything to obtain his hacking abilities. Dont go thinking Sora is done with him however, I didn't do much his point of view in his chapter.

RL: real world (unneeded explanation :p)

I'm open if you need explanations or if you have suggestions, critics or anything like always.


	5. Mind of a blind

State: Chapter 05: Mind of a blind

Concerned Characters: Kite, Tsukasa, Sora, Subaru, A-20...

Pairing: non pairing(?)

Disclamer: chapter 01 has all the answer you need.

A/N: Damn, too tired to comment. Anyway, I'll try to update soon.

Sorry for the grammar.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 05: The Mind of the Blind

Tsukasa could only gaze in amazement at the girl who was lying before him, in a peaceful slumber. He had been here for so long and yet... he didn't feel tired at all. It seemed all his previous worries were gone. All he had to do was stare at her beautiful flying white hair, at her pale face, at her hovering body. He felt content simply with this. Macha the cat was right. This was a nice place. Finaly, he could rest peacefuly and alone... with her.

He tried to talk to her. To ask her name, what she was doing here, but it seemed all she could do was sleep. It was fine with him. She was sleeping and he felt like she could understand him... or he could understand her...

Was something else the matter?

No, there wasn't. _was there?_

'_Tsukasa'_

The boy jumped. Was it a voice he heard? It seemed so. A woman voice. The one from the dungeon.

_'Can you hear me?'_ Continued the voice. She was so sweet...

"Who is this" he asked to the disembodied voice.

_'I am on your side' _She answered._'as long as you walk with me, I shall protect you.'_

"'Walk together'?" repeated Tsukasa in wonder, "What should I do?" he wasn't sure anymore.

_'Contact Mimiru' _she sweetly responded.

Tsukasa pondered for a while. He didn't really wanted to call this pest. Even if... "But, the Crimson Knights are guarding the gate."

_'Don't worry Tsukasa' _She assured, _'Believe in me. Beside, your Gardian is with you.' _'Guardian?' he wondered, 'Does she mean that monster who...' he recaled his last enconter with the Knight, how the slimy hovering monster defeated him. Was this monster a guardian for him? His own, his personal guardian?

"My...guardian..." It was still a little hard to believe.

_'I will bestow another power on you' _she assured. Another power? This woman talked as if she was a god or something. Was she? It was possible. If she could summon such powerful monsters... This place...did it belonged to her? What about the girl?

He smirked. Those were unesessary questions. What was important now was: nobody would ever bother him anymore. If he had to deal with the other rude girl before he could come back here, it was fine.

He had powerful allies with him after all.

Fort Omph of the Sigma server was calm as always. This root town level was high and not very used by players. The red-claded Twin Blade was glad for this. He was relaxing after long hours of hard work. The boy had hoped to find some clues in special dungeons he knew. He wanted to find where Aura or anyone else might have gone to. But no matter where he looked, wether it was Cursed Despaired Paradise on the Theta server, Chatting Snaring Twins in Sigma, Merciless Grieving Furnace of Lambda, none of the fields he tried had any lead. The white rooms he previously visited weren't even here. He still had grounds to cover, but his hope was going thin.

Another worry came when he first battled a monster and got hurt. The pain was very real and he couldn't help but scream at it. It was luck for him Sora didn't noticed, as he was engrossed in the fight. The Twin Blade wondered how much time it'll be before he'll have to reveal his condition. The PK had left him hours ago, apparently tired of the wild dungeon's exploration. Kite had continued alone for a while without much success.

He sighed and admired the town. It looked like a flying advanced fortress in the sky. The last time Kite had seen it, it was so corrupted there were tears in the sky. It now looked as clean as it could be. Aura's disappearance, everyone's disappearance... was it linked to it? Or was it _his_ apparition?

He let himself wander this time, as he was too tired to do otherwise. He had first assumed The World had changed after Morganna's last attack, but now he wondered if it was even the case. If it was _him_ who had somehow been transported into another World, it made more sense. In this case, it would be normal for him to not be remembered by anybody, would it? This explanation was ridiculous to a serious mind and only half-satisfying actualy. Where would he find this World anyway? And what link could there be to Aura vanishing after the Data Drain, the corrupted flashmails and his own memory loss?

He closed his eyes, but again, stayed restless. He was having the time to calm down and reflect on his situation but he always felt like he missed something... Or more likely, there was something _he didn't wanted to see_. He reflected on every players and places he saw. A great majority, he knew them already. There were also a smal part of them he never met. None of them however, seemed to recognise him. Not any of the Dungeons or places he visited seemed corrupted. The only thing which was quite 'abnormal' was the disappearance of Aura's statue from the cathedral. The white rooms weren't here either...

What about the knights? Now, there was something else! Sora and everyone in the game seemed to think the organisation was a normal occurence. What more, he actualy remembered having heard of it before coming here. He also heard Wiseman say they were in the Epithaph of Twilight...

He looked at his options and managed to select his Epthaph's excerpts. He still had them all... he thought they'd be lost like his member addresses. Looking through them he found himself to be disappointed. There was nothing on the knights in his own textes. Maybe he could find someone who had others? Sora might have relations. He was on dark buisness himself right? Him being a PK and all...

He sat up straigh. Suddenly, his nagging feeling became clear. _There is no PK on the newest version..._ Why did Sora reacted to his reflexion as if he was insane?? As if he was wrong in thinking PKing wasn't allowed _anymore_? It was clear now... But how could _this_ be possible? There was no way! Even as he saw everything assembling together perfectly, he couln't believe it: the reason why the Crimson Knights _still _exist, the reason why PKing is _still_ allowed, the reason why the players don't know him _yet_, the reason why the servers aren't corrupted _yet_, The reason why Aura's statue isn't....

Aura's statue...

_Aura..._

Aura's statue isn't here...

_Aura isn't here..._

Aura's statue isn't here yet.

_Aura isn't here yet._

_Aura doesn't exist yet._

_The PC 'Kite' doesn't exist yet.'I' don't exist yet._

_As for everybody..._

Kite started running on the plateform of the fortress. He'd actualy wanted to sleep rather than think of this. But he couldn't. Why couldn't he? Wasn't he human enough? Was he? The air which rushed on his face when he was running, his legs starting to hurt him and his breathing becoming hard weren't proofs of this? Would an AI feels this? Would Aura and Mia feel this? _Did they feel this_?

He stopped his run, breathless, and wounded in his heart. He needed to move somewhere. Anywhere! Any field! Anything so he woud stop thinking.

He left the town, cursing against Aura, all his inside burning of unrestrained and harsh emotions.

Mac Anu was a highly populated town, even in the night. On this day it was hard to keep peace. The number of players was increasing. PKs and various hackers came in the game and played unfairly. Because of this, a Root Town like Mac Anu was a perfect place for the Crimson Knights to settle their guild. A lot of players were relying on them even before they were relying on the admins. And it was all thank to their leaders.

Lady Subaru the Heavy Axeman had gained a lot of respects as well as responsabilities. She was good at dealing with them however. Her morals and understandings made her an extremly efficient leader. Had she been told this, she would have answered it was natural for her to be as such, considering her rank. There wasn't much problems which couldn't be solved by the knights.

It seemed however, that this particular one was part of this minority.

The blue-haired girl was waiting anxiously for news of her knight compagnon. The Silver Knight was the second leader and was thinking highly of her, she knew this. His will to prove himself was dangerous at time, like this one. He came to a dungeon alone to arrest a suspect. This was inconsiderate of him. He should have gone with others knights. Now they were trying to find the Wavemaster themself and were keeping the Chaos Gate of the Delta server, where he was last sighted. It had been two day already though. Subaru had the suspicion he already logged out of the server.

What was worrying her was Silver Knight. He hadn't logged in since his last encounter with the Wavemaster and hadn't contacted anyone in the guild. Subaru had seeked contact with people in the game who knew him in real life and was waiting for their answers.

She sighed a little. It was hard to keep her calm now. Such thing never happened before. It felt like she couldn't solve it on her own. She just wished she wasn't on her own anymore. If Crim was still here...

"Lady Subaru"

She turned to see Salu, one of her most faithful knight. He was kneeled before her, waiting for her order. She asked him his news.

"One of his friend informed us by the Board." he started, "he is currently resting in the hospital."

Subaru's heart stopped at this. with difficulty, she asked.

"Please, explain what you know."

"He was found uncounscious at his computer, he had been transported in the hospital. He seems to have recover, but is unable for now to remember what could have caused his state. He'll come around in a day or so."

"So, he is alright?"

"It's seems so, Lady Subaru."

She felt a wave of relief going through her body. This was one thing she could stop worrying about. There was still the problem of the player who rendered him unconscious in the first place. She believed however, that it would soon be out of her own range. The problem will probably have to be dealt by the admins, as Lords Orca's and Balmung's hands were full with more important matters. The strange occurences...

"Lady Subaru, we may have to think of a way to deal with the Wavemaster;" said Salu "If he can somehow injure players in real life, then he is a threat to them."

She considered it. "Keep your position in front of the gate for now, we'll soon be informed of any changes in the situation."

"Yes, Lady Subaru." at this, he parted with her.

The grass was green in this field. The sky was blue and the background music was nicely going with the atmosfer. In other word this was in perfect contrast with the current players who were running through it. Jumping up and down as usual, the infamous PK Sora had made sure there were no one else here but him and the knights. Those idiots where still looking for the boy on the Delta server! They were ridiculous! They couldn't even protect the players who were exploring from getting PKed!

But they were still useful. He now was sure the suspect Wavemaster was really the hacker he saw on this field. After questioning them, he warped out of the field. Arriving at Mac Anu, he proceeded in entering the keywords of the field he sighted the Wavemaster. This simple action made him remember of his exploration with the other Twin Blade two days ago.

He couldn't believe how boring it has been!

All they did was exploring, clearing dungeons from every monsters and going down to the lowest level! He couldn't remember how many of them he did, but they had been quite numerous. Heck, he even leveled up by four levels just by doing that! And the other guy -Kite was it?- didn't even seemed satisfied by that.

Sora admited his assumptions were right: this guy _was good _and not only as a player, but as a leader as well. More than once, his advices and orders saved him against oponents several times stronger than he was. They traveled to high level fields as well as low ones. Actualy, when the servers were high, Sora had sometime enjoyed himself. It was nice to feel the thrill of avoiding death by an inch again. He still prefered PKing though. It was a shame the older guy didn't let him do so.

Arriving to the dark field, Sora proceeded to the dungeon. What had frustrated him more was they didn't took time to look for the Wavemaster. The other had been so much into his search he forgot his promise to Sora. What was he looking for anyway? Sora wasn't stupid, he knew that this 'Kite' was hiding something. He first thought he was some old player coming in the game after a while, after being banned from playing maybe? This would explain his uneasiness. But...

He wouldn't have admited so easely his version was oudated. Not only that, what about his weird flashmail? And the strange things he said to him the first time they met? Maybe there were some connection with the Wavemaster after all. For now, he'll just observe him. He'll decide what to do later.

The dungeon wasn't deep. Once he arrived to the Gott statue room, he examined the wall. No trace of a hack, he didn't expected so. How did he do this? He knew hacking the game wasn't simple. Even the most advanced hacker had trouble with it. Would an average boy be able to do so? As well as knocking out a player in real life? How was it possible? You needed to be free of any known rules to do that. to be above average players. To surpass any bondaries like...

He stopped his move for a while. He recalled. What was free of bondaries of the game, what was said to override the fondation of the game. Could it be? Could he have it? The key?

"That guy..." He muttered, exitement in his voice "I wanna be friend with him!" he grined widely at this.

He had a feeling this was going to be fun. And there were other uses for the knights.

Lambda server. Kite had come here to trad some of the treasures he found during his explorations. Even by sharing half of them with Sora, he still had a lot. Of course he had continued for a while after the PK left and had spent quite some time in higher dungeons. He had decided to come here because Carmina Gadelica was known for its number of trads.

Once finished, he decided to wander in the town again. He still had some places he wanted to go but he'll wait a little. He still felt a little down after having realised what disturbed him. How could he have gone in the past? And what about his memories? And Aura? He still hadn't found her. Why did she do this to him? For what purpose?

He now recalled the sign which had appeared on Corbenik's eye during his Data Drain. It had been a strange sign composed of circles and line with a dot in the center. He couldn't remember well. Did this sign had something to do with his situation?

He was so much in his thoughs he didn't notice the player who was before him. They knocked each others.

"Ouch!" he yelled. Surprised and hurt by the sudden shock.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't wanted to make you fall!"

The voice was high and chirping. He standed up and looked at the figure on the ground. It was a girl dressed in a pink outfit, pink hair and closed eyes. Kite recognized her as being A-20, one of the treasure hunters of The World who specialised herself in Golden Grunty. He leaned forward and took her hand to help her stand.

"It's alright, I was the one who wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry" he excused himself.

"Really? All right then!" she replied, apparently satisfied with this. Some would not have taken well her bold attitude, but Kite wasn't one of those. He greeted her and started to walk away when she called him again.

"Hey! Are you free?"

"Huh?"

"For a dungeon. That's what people do in the game right?" Kite stared at her for a while. What was that all about? Didn't she knew this already, or...

"So are you free or what?" She looked eager for it.

"Well...I guess so..." he finaly answered."Are you planing to invite me?"

"If you want to."

Kite considered it for a while. It wasn't like he had anything else to do. He didn't felt it would impact much more on future events than he already had either. He barely knew her after all. He agreed and soon they were exchanging adresses. At the Chaos Gate, Kite selected an average level of the server. Maybe it was his imagination, but he had a feeling a player was looking at him strangely. He forgot as they arrived at the fire field. The air was oppressing and the sun was hot. He soon find himself covered in sweat.

"Lets just find the dungeon entry." he huffed.

"We're not killing the monsters in the field first?" A-20 asked.

"Suit yourself. Lets make it quick then!" he pressed.

His problems were barely starting however. Arriving at the first portal, he took notice of a very important thing: A-20's level was much lower than the current field. Actualy it was lower than any fields the current server could offer. But it was too late. The portal was already activated.

"Why didn't you said your level was so low _before_ we go into the field!" he shouted at her as the monster was violently attacking him.

"I didn't thought it would matter so much!" answered back the female Twin Blade, Her grip on her blades uncertain."You're strong after all, no?"

Kite cursed through his breath before dealing the final blow to the monster. Panting under the heat and his efforts; He stayed here for a while. What did he do to deserve all this?

"Uh," started the girl, "aren't you taking this a little too seriously? It's just a game after all, no sweat!"

Kite laughed harshly at this. Yes what exactly _did he do to The World _to deserve this? Her remark was a torture to him and she didn't even knew it.

"Why?" he finaly asked.

"Huh?" the girl looked at him surpised.

"Why did you invited me?" he stocked his weapons and tried to refresh himself with a move of his hand " Didn't you have anyone to go with? Or even, can't you try a dungeon solo?"

"Why?" she repeated, "I have reasons. Beside, isn't the purpose of the game creating links with others?" she reasonned, "Or are you unhappy to go with me?"

"Err, it's not like that but..." he didn't wanted to upset her, "but aren't you more interested in hunting treasures like Golden Grunties?"

"What's a Golden Grunty?" She looked genuinely curious.

"Never mind then." he sighed.

"Are you going to give up the dungeon now?" asked A20.

"Why would I?"

"I didn't tell you about my level and you seem angry." She tilted her head. " Beside, it's what everyone else did when they discovered it."

"Well, I'm sure people wouldn't do that to you if you were a little more honest with them." he noted.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Anyway, there is no reason for me to quit now that I started." he assured." Once you start something, you'd better finish it." he smiled at her. She was just a newbie after all. She looked at him for a while before smiling back. He was suddenly remembered of Natsume, his comrade Twin Blade. Were all female Twin Blades so uneasy in the game? Well, Natsume had been much better after, and he _knew _A-20 would soon become an expert at treasure hunting. They started heading to the next portal. The heat was still barely bearable so he hurried, making the other Twin Blade stumble to catch him. He used a speed charm on her.

They were nearly reaching it when a high pitched scream echoed through the field from the opposite direction. Both of them stopped and, in a common agreement, they rushed in the direction of the voice. Three portals were directly in front of a single player. One of them was activated and the giant monster who had appeared from it wasn't looking too happy.

Without a second thought, Kite rushed on it and planted his weapons inside. With the help of the skill Saber Dance, in four strong hits, he defeated it without taking much damages. A hand on his face to try and get rid of the sweats, he turned to the player to see if he or she needed help. His shock was great however when he recognised him. He looked like a Wavemaster, but his avatar was filled with holes.

The wandering AI by the name of Plaird started speaking:

"Hi! Do You you know what I'm looking for? I don't know what I'm looking for, do you?" his voice was high pitched just like Kite remembered.

"Err..." he really didn't knew what to say. The AI had been deleted during his time. Looking at him now was strange. What was he doing here?

"Oh! You're looking for it too, right?" He continued "You're looking for it like she does! Who is she? Who is you? Are you looking for 'she' too?"

"What?" this was different from what he remembered. Two feets from him, A-20 looked unsure.

"Say?" she questioned,"Who is that and why is he looking like this?"

"Who is that is him!" responded the AI, misunderstanding the question. "He should know but he doesn't. She doesn't know either. I don't know either! Say, what's 'I don't know' ?"

"What should I know?" pressed Kite. This may be no coincidence he found Plaird here.

"What shouldn't you know? What should you know? What should I know?" he looked exited " What shouldn't you know at Theta, Bitter Fantasy Mirror World ? 'What should you know' isn't here! ' What you should know' is somewhere else. Do you know where it is?"

Before Kite could ask anything else to the wandering AI, he heard A-20 's scream. She had activated the two remaining portals and was in deep trouble. Kite quickly got to her in order to help, but she had already disbanded and left the field, apparently overwhelmed by the attacks. By the time Kite had dispached the monsters, Plaird had disappeared. He sighed and caught something shining on the ground. He recognised it as one of the golden Kai blades A-20 was carrying. She had lost it. He tucked it and readied himself to leave the field.

As he arrived to the gate, he was disappointed when he saw A-20 wasn't here anymore. He sighed again. This could wait he guessed. He was starting to feel better from the nice wind which got through him as he arrived. He was going to stay here for a while. Maybe he'll contact Sora later in order to go to Theta, Bitter Fantasy Mirror World like plaird suggested. Those words were familiar. He remembered going there. This was a Lost Land... The upside down dungeon..;

He supposed this'll have to wait. For now, he'll just relax a little. There maybe a way for answers after all. He payed no mind to the Heavy Blade Mimiru as she arrived to town, a distressed look on her face.

* * *

A/N2: Plaird is a vagrant AI who help Kite's party access Net Slum in //Mutation (is it a 'he' or a 'she'?).

The upside down dungeon is a Legendary Land of the game, also in //Mutation for those who, like me, haven't played the game.

Reviews are welcomed!


	6. Fear of a heart

State: Chapter 06: The Fear of the heart

Concerned Characters: Kite, Tsukasa, Sora, Subaru, Orca...

Pairing: non pairing(?)

A/N: In the serie, this is when we're entering into a large gape of days which is very hard for me to respect.

Also, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be stuck if I can't find some help the Wiki can't gave me. :(

My appologies for my bad writing.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 06: The Fear of the heart

He was running. He kept on running until he tripped and fell on the ground. The pain he felt then made him forgot for a while why he was running in the first place. With difficutly and as he was moaning, he managed to stand up, trembling a little.

The event which happened was still in his head, it was hurting him. It had been painful to see the girl so defensless. Tsukasa didn't liked the Heavy Blade much but...

...Why? Why was it so painful to be different? Why did the woman wanted him to contact the girl? Did the woman knew?

He started moving forward again. He was going to the place where the girl was sleeping again, he wanted to calm down like the first time. What she had said. What Mimiru had said, she and the man had been bothering him. Had the Silver Knight really been hurt in _the other life?_ And he was responsible for that? His Guardian's...?

He had been worried back then, when he saw the monster attacking the girl. He didn't wanted her to end up like the knight, even if he didn't like her much. But he couldn't...He hadn't been able to...If it hadn't been for Macha...

She was calling him. Probably wanting to talk about it again. But Tsukasa didn't felt like it. Not now.. Not now that he was unable to control it...

His vision blured as he warped. Not again. He never wanted the monster to disobey him again.

He'll have to work on that.

The snow as covering the entire field. It just seemed nothing could be seen but the single figure in the middle. The blue and white claded girl was walking to the dungeon tower, looking around as if to search for something, or someone.

Lady Subaru was starting to wonder, would this player come? He had contacted her yesterday and asked her if they could talk alone. Apparently, it was important. Maybe it was a hoax...Could it be?

She suddenly heard a wislting sound from upside, alarmed, she looked up and saw the dark figure comming right down on her. Emiting a weird sound, the man landed right on his feet before her, making the snow fly.

The Twin Blade looked darkly at her, apparently satisfied with her reaction. Behind her headset, Subaru's player calmed her heart beat. She was very aware of who this player was and wondered what had come to his mind to contact her. Not that she could do much against his presumed activities.

"So, you kept your promise." He smirked at her.

She retained her calm. "Are you Mr Sora?"

He seemed amused at her manners." It's weird to be called "Mister", but yes" His eyes were piercing her." I'm "_Mr Sora_"."

"Let's get straight to the point."She didn't liked this at all."What did you want to talk about?"

His smile widened, but he kept observing her without saying a word. She really wanted to go now. With an assured voice, she warned:

"If you have nothing to say, I'm leaving."

"OK, let's get to the point," he finaly annonced, his voice getting lower and deeper, "The Key of the Twilight."

For a moment, she didn't get what he was saying, but then, Crim and the rumor came back to her and she lowered her eyebrows. She didn't like where this was going.

"Sounds interesting huh?" the other said after having waited for her reaction. This was it then? 'there is nothing to gain from those sensless talk', she thought. She turned to leave.

"There is no such thing."

"Oh,oh, you don't listen to what other people have to say," he was still following her."that's not good." She continued her path, trying to look undisturbed. She couldn't ignore him however, when he placed his blade before her in a treatening way.

"Stop." the demand was simple and clear. It was very hard to not panic in those situations, even if she knew he wouldn't dare hurt one of the Crimson Knights. But for how long?

"C'mon, let's talk about it." he was still staring at her with his bloody eyes. His face was scary on more than one level; his scare made him look older. It was going well with his Player Killer tendency. Subaru tried to ignore that fact when she finaly asked him:

"What is there to talk about? Why would you bring such legend out now?"

It just seemed his smile was constantly plastered on his face. "The Wavemaster you're looking for," he paused, as if to wait for her reaction, but she remained emotionless this time."the one who defeated single handely one of the knight in the game AND in real life," he sang darkly the last part, "is using, means, outside, of all, systems!"

Her eyes narrowed in understanding. There was no way she would follow him on this theory." There is absolutely no proof of this."

"Oh, I got some!" he said, "Don't you want to know how he passed unoticed to your watch?" He waited a moment, a playful gleam in his red eyes, "I saw how he did, you wont catch him like that!" again, he stared at her and she said nothing "Going through walls isn't something people -even Hackers- can do easely now, can they?"

She was still silent, but it was because she pondered what he had said this time. So, as she thought, the Wavemaster wasn't on the Delta server anymore, though she didn't expect it was because of a hack. He asserted it was because he passed through the game, but could she believe his words? Did he have any reason to lie in the first place?

"And you think this is related to this rumor? Are you thinking he found it?"

"You knights should know these things after all," he still had his cunning attitude " you're _very _close to the admins right?"

So, this was why he contacted her, he thought the higher grades had more informations on this. "You're mistaken, such rumors aren't taken seriously by the Knights," 'anymore' she added in her head." there is no roots to it."

"And is there any root to the fact that a player of the game was hurt in real life?" he seemed to enjoy this...and she didn't know what to answer him.

"In any case," she finaly said," we are still investigating now and there's no place for such fantasy."

"On the contrary," he chukled,"see? What did I tell you about not listening to others?" his bloody eyes were on her again,"You should consider every paths that may lead to the truth, even the most unbelievables."

Again, she was silent. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She didn't thought it was possible, but she still couldn't deny this possibility. It was her duty as a knight, even if she hated having to stay with such a dangerous player.

"Fine," she conceded, "we'll look into it." She stepped once, he didn't stop her this time. "You'll have to accompany me to the Crimson Knights for now and explain everything you know."

Looking satisfied, the Twin Blade jumped before her and they both warped back to the root town.

Before this conversation ever started, the player by the name of Kite had already cursed numerous times his inability to send any email or clear flashmail to his associate. How was he supposed to go to the upside down dungeon alone? He knew he could have, but this would mean risking unecessarly his life: he knew the monsters had strong levels there and the boss was a pain to beat. Of course, his level was much higher than when he first did it, but he wasn't too keen on dying in this World. Who knew what would happen then?

He had looked into every Root Town for the Twin Blade, even on the higher server before realising Sora wasn't on a level high enough yet to practice on the Omega server. He decided to go back on Theta, since it seemed the PK liked the first two server of the game. As he arrived, he found himself right in front of a strongly built blademaster who looked ready to use the gate.

Kite's heart jumped in his chest. The player had surpised him for a moment. Again, he remembered seeing him before, and like he nearly did now, he mistook him for Orca. The blue tatooed warrior had a different set of tatoo than his green tatooed friend had and his eyes were in a shade of purple his friend didn't shared either. Other than that, both of them seemed to like half naked looks. Seeing Kite's expression, the Orca lookalike named Bear misunderstood his feelings and spoke:

"Ah! Sorry I startled you!" he laughed a little,"it's nice to see a new face here! Fresh beginer I presume?"

For a moment, Kite just couldn't contradict him. The idea of him being a beginer was so ridiculous it barely reached his mind. Again, Bear mistook his reaction.

"Dont worry, you may just start the game, but you'll always find helpful players like me to show you the ropes."

Not really feeling like arguing with the Blademaster who looked so much like his friend, Kite just nodded numbly. The other waved at him and warped. A little further from the gate, he saw a blonde female Wavemaster chuckling at the scene. She disturbed him and he didn't knew why. Deciding it was best to leave for now, he warped in direction of the Delta server.

Mac Anu was as populated as ever but it seemed like there were some strange event. Curious, Kite followed everyone's eyes and was surprised to see his partner in the middle of the Knights boat. This one seemed to enjoy himself a lot -at the great damn of all the knights- and looked even more happy when he spotted the blue-haired boy at the gate. He apparently said something to the knight before jumping high and out of the boat, leaving them behind and hurrying to Kite.

Kite did not wanted to know what exactly the PK was doing with the knights, but he had the nagging feeling he would soon find out. As to prove him right, Sora stopped in front of him, apparently satisfied of himself. He sighed before speaking to the PK.

"Hi, I was looking for you."

"Huh? What with this greeting?" Sora seemed annoyed at his reaction, "Cant you be polite enough and ask me how I managed to get 'best buddy' with the knight guys?"

Kite sighed again. He was right: No escape to this. "I thought you didn't like the Crimson Knights?" he noted.

"I said I didn't like them, not that I couldn't use them." he smirked at this, "They're getting well with the admins after all, they're good for informations."

"Well, why don't you tell me everything while we'll go exploring." proposed Kite, "There this new dungeon I want to try and..."

"Another of those! How boring!" Sora whined, apparently not ready to leave Kite do what he wanted this time,"I'll have more fun at seeking informations."

Tiredly, Kite started. "Look, all I ask is for this one dungeon! I promise you we'll look for your Wavemaster lat..."

Kite stopped, suddenly realising his previous forgotten promise."Ah, oh no I'm very sorry!" he excused himself. He should have realised it. "I'm sorry, I completly forgot last time...err, all right, how about we'll look for your Hacker first and..."

"Ho? Dont be so hard on the excuses." the other one stopped him with a smug face," We wouldn't have been able to find him had we looked directly for him anyway. Beside, the Wavemaster isn't what really matters here."

"Huh? What do you mean?" now, Kite was surprised. The PK had seemed so exited at the thought of meeting the player.

"Let's talk about it somewhere else." the other smirked as he looked around. Kite noticed then a lot of people staring at them. Even with the 'party only' speach, it was still bothersome. Nodding to the other Twin Blade, he teleported them to a deserted field.

After he asked again the PK what it was all about, Sora just nodded for a moment, his knowing look never leaving his smilling face. When he saw the other was starting to lose patience, he talked.

"I'm pretty sure an old guy like you know of it." he had started to walk around Kite, both his arms behind his head. "After all, the story is pretty old itself." he stopped."Actualy..." his eyes were now staring directly at Kite, as if to find some hidden clues "...this may be the reason _why_ an old timer like you came back to the game... "

"Wha..." Kite's confusion was at its higher level. Could he be more elusive? He didn't get a word of what he was saying!

"Yes..." Sora was now in deep thought."that would explain the intensive search in the dungeons... and why you're doing it _now_ of any time...you've probably heard of the recent event and decided to look for it after all this time."

"What are you talking about?"

Sora's smile was triumphant. "The Key of the Twilight."

And this smile was met by the most blank stare one could ever get. Kite felt just as if he suddenly found himself in the middle of a trivia show where someone would have asked him what was the exact number of Pi. In order to not completly lose his calm, he tried an answer.

"Are you refering to what is written on the blade of the welcoming page of the game?"

"What?"

"Yeah, you know, before accessing the game," Kite had a feeling his answer was completely wrong, but it wasn't worrying him the least."there is a blade on your left. Everytime I log in, I see those words on it."

Sora looked completly disfigured: his unmovable smile had left his face and his eyes were wider than anyone had ever seen him make. He quickly regained his composure, but not his smile as he was throwing a dirty look at the other Twin Blade.

"There is no such thing on the blade." he simpy stated slowly.

"Really?" Kite was surprised.

"I'm telling you, there isn't!" the other affirmed. "That is, unless it has something to do with your outdated version."

"Hum, you're probably right on that." agreed the boy, not wanting to stay anymore time on this topic.

"So, you're telling me you've never _ever_ heard of it?" Sora seemed quite stuck to it.

"No, I haven't." assured Kite, passably annoyed with all this. Did this key had something to do with the Epitath?

"This is just the biggest rumor The World ever had!" clamed the other.

Kite groaned. Rumors were numerous here, weren't they?

"Well, I suppose we can look for clues and all for it if you want," Kite felt like he had wasted some precious time he could have used to look for Aura."but after we look at the dungeon ok?"

"Meh! You and your dungeon!" Sora's tone didn't hide his boredom."Fine, it's not like I have anytime to lose until the knights call me anyway."

"Glad to hear that." Kite answered, though he was starting to regret himself having proposed it: he now felt as if his insomnia was coming down to him. Why did Sora had to woke him up this one day? Couldn't he have just continued on sleeping, thinking he had just fell off his couch? He'd sell all his weapons for a bed now!

The two players headed to the Theta sever. Kite was glad when he saw neither one of the Blademaster or the blonde woman. He stepped a little and turned to the gate to put the keywords. "Bitter Fantasy Mirror World"... would Aura be there? Would there be any clues as to what happened to the others? He felt his heart pounding as he confirmed his choice...

And felt himself dying when a horrible sound echoed around and through him. He yelped and jumped back._What the hell was that?_

"Huh? What happened?" the PK didn't seemed to much bothered by the sound, but was looking at the other boy curiously.

"It's...protected?" Kite realised as the red letters were flashing before him.

Sora looked at the gate, mildly interested. "Heh; it's seems the admins are keeping some secrets from us after all."

"Why is it protected?" wondered the red-claded boy aloud. He knew protected areas weren't made by the sytem admins. They were bugged areas from the corruption of The World. Did this mean the area was corrupted? Even now, there were corruptions in the game? The troubles had already started? _When_ exactly was he anyway? He'll have to ask Sora...

"I wonder..." Sora finaly said, " would a Hacker do the trick?"

"What?" Kite turned to the man. Was he thinking about his Wavemaster again?

"I have relations you know," explained the other, "I can come in contact with some powerful people." he looked at Kite expectantly,"Say," his smile was on his face again,"you're saying you know nothing about the Key but...I'm sure even a light head like you already heard the name of "Helba"."

Kite felt his heart jumping off his chest at the name. In truth, he had already thought of contacting the woman before, even looking for her in Net Slum, however, he hadn't took time to do so and when he had realised he was probably in the past, he completely gave up on the idea. What if his encounter changed the future even more than what he already had? Would this be a good thing? Mayber this would stop the Waves...but could he risk it knowing his life's friends were in the balance?

Kite shook his head. He didn't knew if Helba was aware of him or not, but he felt it was better to avoid those who knew him for now...as much as it pained him.

"It wont work." he finaly answered.

"What?"

"A simple hack wont work on these." assured Kite again. "You need something more." 'And, unfortunately, I dont have it anymore.' Kite touched his right arm where the bracelet had been in regret. 'How am I supposed to go in then?'

The black-clothed man looked like he wanted to ask him something, but finaly said: "Well, I guess our mean of travel will have to surpass the fondation of The World then."

Kite looked at the PK in surprise. He couldn'd think of...

"You dont think that 'Key' you keep talking about could help us access it, do you?"

"It's not as far fetched as you make it seem," retorted the man, "actualy, I was thinking more that..." he was suddenly interrupted by a beeping sound.

"What is it?" the boy asked.

"News from the knights apparently," he grined,"let's talk about that later."

"Why are you suddenly so interested in the dungeon hunting?" Kite looked at him curiously.

"Meh, It's not the dungeon that interest me," avidly, Sora looked at Kite, "if my suspition is correct, then I wasn't too far of my lead when I guessed you were looking for it." before the other boy could protest, he had already warped.

He was anxious. The pedestral where he was sitting was cold, as was the entire church, but he didn't minded. His exitement was big now. It would be alright. They wouldn't need to fear it anymore. He heard the creaking of the door as it was opening. This simple sound made his heart race and a smile appearing on his lips. She came after all! He had been afraid that...

His felt the smile on his face dying. No, it wasn't her, he realised as the massive blue tatooed Blademaster stepped in the church. Tsukasa hadn't been waiting for him at all.

"Sorry," started the other, "but I've been officialy sent by Mimiru."

The white haired boy felt his heart tightening. "She...is not comming?" he asked hesitantly.

"She said she didn't want to fight with you." the Blademaster apologised.

The boy didn't looked at the man in the eyes. That's right, she was upset. " She hates me?" he wondered half to himself.

"Well," The warrior explained," She may think that's what you think of her."

"Not much I can do about that..." the boy pondrered, a sad smile on his face. " But, it's not a problem anymore."

" What do you mean?" the Blademaster looked curious, "you mean you can log out now?"

The boy shook his head. It seemed his problem of log was the only think in the head of this man. 'But', Tsukasa realised, 'I can show it to him too.' Exited, he asked: " You wanna see?"

Before the other could ask him anything, Tsukasa stood up and brandished his staff. Soon, he felt a familiar wave in the air and saw the Guardian appearing right before him. The other player's expression tightened. Noticing this, Tsukasa reassured him:

"It's all right. Look." to proove his words, he holded a hand up and let the monster lashing one of his slugish filament in his hand. He made him learn this trick along with others in the same way someone would teach a dog. Apparently, it worked.

"See?" the boy turned to the man, happy of his work. But the other didn't seemed to share his entusiasm.

"What's "all right"?' he questioned, ""see" what? I don't get it boy."

Tsukasa stared at him for a while. Was he blind or something? "It wont happen again." He explained. The monster will never attack them again. "Don't you understand?"

The man looked disappointed. "You contacted Mimiru just to say that?"

What with this question? Wasn't it important enough? "But, isn't it great?" he exclaimed.

The man looked at him for a while before speaking: " So, what are you trying to tell me? It doesn't make sense to me at all. Is this really good enough for you? Do you believe you have finaly become something great?"

Tsukasa didn't answered. Adults. They were all like this. Sermoning out with what they have and never applying their own advices to themself. He just couldn't understand. And wasn't this something great? All this hard work and all he could heard were criticisms.

Without a word, he warped to another field.

Omega server. The quietest of all of the five server. Lia Fail, the relic city was a place frequented by the highest players only. This made it the perfect place for such a known player to relax. Albeit he liked his popularity a lot, Lord Orca also had of those times too. He looked around. There were barely a dozen of players who came here regulary, but it was disapointing Balmung wasn't logged in yet. It would have been a blast if they could have gone to this field together. However, Orca had to go alone. A dead end again.

He walked to the shop to fill his stock of items. Actualy, it was bad, he didn't even knew what he was looking for in the first place! All he knew was it involved some strange occurences which happened in the game recently. Bugs which shouldn't have been. The most recent he heard of was a glitch which happened in both the Lambda and the Theta server five days ago. He didn't knew what this was all about, but heard when the admins finaly located it and found where they occured, nothing unusual had been found.

His eyes caugh a flash of yellow light and he turned around to the Chaos Gate expectantly. He was disapointed however, when he didn't found the character he was waiting for. He couldn't see well the red-claded figure who was looking around, but he knew he wasn't the one he had been expecting. It looked like someone new to this server. He turned back to the shop.

He had been surprised when Albireo contacted him. He didn't thought the Long Arm had ever been more than a solo player. And he barely contacted anyone either. Apparently, it had something to do with the recent glitches, though Orca had no idea why the strong player would contact him on this subject. What could he want from him? Informations? The warrior had a suspition Albireo didn't needed his help for this.

He heard a sudden gasp. Surpised, he turned around and saw the player from the gate looking at him with wide eyes. Before he could even ask him anything, he had warped. Damn, those player were frustrating. He knew his title was famous and all, but they didn't have to be so embarassed from that! He was a player like any other! And he wasn't Balmung either -this guy would impress anyone!

This was one of the fiew things he didn't liked in the game. Even if overall, it wasn't so bad to be famous here. He had bragged about it to his best friend in real life, but he hadn't convinced him to play yet. Dang, this guy could be so stubborn sometime!

Finishing his buisness, he turned back to the gate to wait for the Long Arm.

The heart beat of Kite could have very well been imitating a semi-automatic at this moment. He was now in Dun Loireag and was himself as pale as a ghost. Still shaking of emotions from his nearly encounter with his lost friend, Kite took long and deep inhalations to calm down. This was bad, he had nearly crossed the path of one of his 'future" partner and changed the entire timeline! Well, actualy, he had the impression this would happen anyway, since he was from outside of the current timeline, he may have changed the future simply by being here. But, there were also the possibility that his presence was _meant_ to be, and if this was the case, then he couldn't risk any harsh moves.

He had a hard time breathing. Even with all the air he was feeling coming into his lungs. It was as if he was trying to breath underwater. The wave of sadness and other strong emotions was causing this. Orca...ever since Skeith...no, ever since the last fight with Corbenik, he hadn't seen his face somewhere else than on Bear's avatar. It was hurting him. Even more when he knew he couldn't just go to him. He wanted to tell him everything and yet...he just knew his best friend would think he was crazy.

'But am I really sane in the first place?' the Twin Blade had started to wonder. People do not usualy feel what's in the game. Not only that, how could he still call himself Orca's friend when he even forgot his real name? He felt a rush of guilt in his stomach, even though he knew it wasn't his fault. The worst part of his situation was his insomnia. He didn't felt like sleeping. No, he just _couldn't_ sleep even though he wanted to. He knew this had been days since he hadn't rested. The only way he had of having a goal was in keeping on exploring, in order to find clues about his state.

This was why all his hopes were now in the upside down dungeon Plaird told him about. Plaird... what did the AIs knew about him? He wondered if they didn't have some answers themself. If he wasn't fearing of crossing path with Helba, he might have gone to Net Slum already.

Kite walked to the ranch to calm his nerves. Sora had gone for a while and he couldn't go to the upper servers. He'd rather avoid them for now, the risk of being noticed were too high. Deciding it was best for him to wait, he just stared at the little grunties who were running in the ranch. Kite wasn't really tempted of breeding a grunty now event though he already had. What point would there be for his future/past self? He lazily watched as a brown haired Blademaster girl was feeding her own baby grunty.

"Hey you!"

The boy turned around in surprise. Right in front of him, three players were staring at him, smiling. One of them, a Blademaster, started talking.

"We saw you on the Delta server. You're a friend of Sora right?"

"Huh?" What was it? Did Sora sent those people to look for him?

"We thought you were!" the dark haired Blademaster beamed, "We're friend with him too! Didn't he told you about us?"

"Err..." Kite didn't knew what to say. In truth, he didn't knew much about Sora. He wasn't sure if he was a friend to him either.

"Anyway," started a Long Arm, "he told us about you and we wondered if you could help us with something."

"Yeah," agreed a brown-haired Wavemaster, "a dungeon. He said you were strong at them so..."

"Can you help us?" finished the Blademaster.

Kite considered it for a while. He stood up from the fence and brushed his yellow marked pants. It wasn't like he had anything to do now, but...

"Aw come on!" urged the Long Arm, "It wont be long, we promise!'

"Uhm, alright then..."

Soon, all four of them were before the Chaos Gate, entering the coordinates of a field. Kite wasn't sure why he felt goosbump on his skin at this time.

Arriving at the field, his uneasiness was still high. Looking at the nice plain, he wondered what would cause him to be on alert.

"That's strange," he wondered," it looks like this field have been cleared recently."

"You're perfectly right on that."

A wave of pain suddenly emerged from his shoulder. He yelled and stumbled, trying to see what had caused it. He saw the Blademaster, still holding his blade high, a smirk on his lips.

"You dont know for how long I wanted to do that!" he laughed darkly at Kite "Though I'd had prefered you were the real thing!"

"Yeah!" agreed the Wavemaster, his own staff raised "It's really too bad Sora's so strong! We cant take him on, he'll just PK us like always!"

"But," continued the Long Arm, " we can still take revenge on his friend!"

Kite backed away as the others were approaching. Soon, he had his weapons in his hands but he was still hesitating. Not counting Sora, he never had to fight other players before. Not only that, he was against PKing, how could he defend himself against three players? He could deal with one, maybe two, but he couldn't hold with the three all together, even at his level. He'll have to flee.

Before he could move however, he heard the Wavemaster yelling:

" Suvi Lei!"

Kite tried to avoid it, but the pain of his shoulder slowed him down. Soon, he found himself unable to move an inch of his body. He was paralysed.

He heard the dark laugh of the Blademaster who then slashed at his chest. The pain which exploded in him made him scream as he was projected to the ground. He felt his closed eyes watering at the impact. He had to heal himself quickly from the paralysis. But as he tried to open the menu, it was the Long Arm who attacked, each slash of his spear made him shout horribily. He couldn't concentrate on anything.

"Damn! Will you stop screaming already!" the Wavemaster seemed disturbed with this scene.

"Just let him do!" assured the Blademaster, "this is way more fun if he take this so seriously!"

"I told you this was a good plan!" the Long Arm was grinning, "When I saw him do all those dungeons, I knew he wouldn't resist comming to help us!"

Kite couldn't understand what they were saying anymore. It just seemed the entire world was crumbling down. The pain....He was feeling himself dying. He was dying and he couldn't do anything against it. There was just no way. There was no way he would die like that! Why....

_Aura..._

"This is no good."

The voice was different. Lower, calmer. The Blademaster didn't realised he had been slashed from behind. As he turned gray on the ground, the two others were petrified when they saw the player apparing. Again, he spoke:

"Player Killing like this isn't fair play."

"Eh! What is _your_ matter creep!" the Long Arm spoke. Before he could do anything else however, the spear slashed his own character, he instantly turned gray. The Wavemaster emited a cry as he was killed like the others.

Kite choose this time to cure himself. After the paralysis dissipated, he healed himself with a Pha Repth. Though his life bar was barely damaged, his wounds had been unbearable. All his pain disappeared in an instant. Relieved, the Twin Blade got up on his feet with dificulty, and turned to his savior.

It was a taned young man with brown hexagon-shaped tatoos on his shoulders and dressed in scale armor. What disturbed Kite the most was his eyes. His right eyes was of a nice shade of blue, but the other was golden, like some raptor's.

"Thank you!" breathed finaly Kite when the other kept silence. "I dont think I coul've resist them for long."

The other didn't answered right away, but nodded. The red-claded boy had a strange sensation when the Long Arm kept staring at him. The way he did it made him feel like all his secrets were exposed to every eyes. Of course the different colors weren't helping.

"Uh... Well anyway, thank again, er..., I'll be going now so..."

"Name."

"What?" Kite was taken aback by the sudden question.

"Your name." the man clarified, "I can't read it."

For a moment, Kite was at a loss of words. He knew what the man meant. He was refering to his corrupted name, but it was the first time someone asked him. For Sora, he didn't felt like lying but...There was something about this man which...

"Speak."

The boy jumped. Suddendly he had a feeling he knew what to do: getting away from the Long Arm as fast as he could. He didn't knew where this sentiment of terror came from, but he didn't ponder on it. He warped out of the field. Once in town, he rapidly warped to Carmina Gadelica and searched for some place to hide.

'Who was this man?' he asked himself as he finaly found a bench to rest. Now, this was a good question. His level had been high but Kite never met him before in the future. Why was Kite afraid of him when he had been the one who saved him from death? This was strange. Was this somehow related to his condition?

He was so deep in his thoughts he didn't realised when a strange slumber had taken his mind. Soon, everything was dark.

* * *

A/N2: Time travel is a real pain, seriously! For Kite, it means having to wonder wether or not his presence would alter or not the timeline. His thoughts are a little scrambled, but hopefully understandable (if not, tell me please).

My biggest problem is that I've never read .hack//AI buster or AI buster 2, therefor, I barely know anything about Albireo or the Cobalt Knights of that time. :(

Were they a secret organisation or were they known from everyone? How much do the Descedant of Fianna know about them or Albireo? Or about Harald or the AIs? And what about Kamui? Did she had the same avatar and name?

If anyone know anything about this, please tell me ! You'd be of a great help!

If I can't find anything, I'll keep updating anyway, but I'd rather stay close to the big timeline.


	7. Fate of a Frail

State: Chapter 07: The Fate of the frail

Concerned Characters: Tsukasa, Sora, Orca, (?)...

Pairing: non pairing(?)

A/N: ...At this point, I don't think I can really say something interesting.

Exept for tanking HieiWanabe for beta-reading my first chapters and Veldrin; LanHikari2000x; Frostbite the 5 tailed wolf Sightbent; Blue Bragon; Arcon1; Marada; Shadow Rave; xiia For their helpful reviews, and basicaly reviewing.

Enjoy :)

* * *

Chapter 07: The Fate of the frail

This was going well. This was how it was supposed to be.

There was nothing to be worried about. After all, soon, he would come back. Soon, he would come back to her.

_And there would be nothing to hope for anymore._

They would be all three together, and there would be no need for the boy anymore.

_She would live on._

Curse that old god! Curse that old man! Curse Harald!

_Why?_

For what purpose did 'she' disposed of a life if it was for having no purpose at all?

_Once she was born..._

_...there would be no need for her..._

But it would be all right. Soon, the child' s growth would be stopped. Soon, she would not be threatened anymore.

_Why...._

_Why was there something which bothered her?_

_Something which shouldn't be..._

_It couldn't be..._

_But..._

_Failed datas...._

Was it the boy?

No, it would be alright.

Macha was with him after all.

Tsukasa walked on the field. The sun was high and it looked like some desert. He prefered when it was night, it was going better with his mood. He had tried. He had showed what he could do to the Blademaster, but all the other did was scolding him like some child, telling him it was not something which made him special or anything. Adults, they are always like this. They keep talking but they are all so selfish. He knew that. He felt some pain comming from his stomach, those dark thoughts were hurting him.

He looked up. His Guardian was here, protecting him as always. This is what the woman said. It would protect him. He stepped before a portal and activated it. The monsters who came from it were ugly and threatening, but he wasn't afraid like the first time he did it. Because he knew now. Before the monsters could attack, his Guardian had placed itself protectively before the boy, defeating the monsters in one blow. Tsukasa felt himself leveling up.

He did not want to come back to the sleeping girl for now, he was not sure what it would do. What if he dyed her? He did not understand the woman's words. Why did he have to dye her? Would it do something special? He regreted having missed Mimiru. She did not come when he called her. It angered him, she had been the one pestering him in the first place, it had been for her he trained his monster so hard. And now, he could control it so it was not too bad. But why? Why didn't she come...she was still angered at him...

He saw another portal gleaming slightly at the horison. All this could wait for a while.

Textures and forms were something which modeled The World. Every field had its own texture and its own effect on players: relaxing, calming, scrary, creepy...Field without texture existed however, a simple blank world. An infinite white room. It was used on extrem necessities by the administrators. Private field which imprisoned the player who warped into it, the colorless font gaving them intense sense of uneasyness.

It was in such field a green-haired player suddenly warped in. Surprised, the red-eyed Twin Blade checked around. He had definitly not expected this. Sora had thought it was the Crimson Kinghts who had contacted him, but he had serious doubts now. Looking around the limitless void, a slight strain of worry was starting to grow in him. Was it a bug or...

"Hum, excuse me, you..."

He turned sharply and met the closed eyes of a very disturbed pink female Twin Blade. She fidgeted nervouly, apparently impressed by his appearance, before speaking again:

"I dont really know why I'm here, do you know where we are?"

The PK looked at her with dull eyes. He had supected for a while he had been called here because of some lunatics who reported his Pking activities, but observing her, he doubted it. She had a single golden blade on her belt which looked like a level one. Not a PK weapon for sure. Nobody on his right mind would put a newbie and a PK in the same room.

"And how would I know that?" he answered, "I just recieved a flashmail telling me to come here."

"Really?" she brightened a little, "me too!" Sora groaned.

"Humpf! I'm not really sure what this mean, but if there is nothing here I'll just gate out."

"I'm afraid this isn't possible, Mr Sora." a voice suddenly spoke.

Surprised, The Twin Blades looked around. In a matter of second, a dozen of character suddenly appeared from thin air. They were heavily armored and all had a steel hat and a visor, all of them were Long Arm. Both of the players were stupified. One of them approached.

"We'd like a word with you, Miss A-20 and Mr Sora." the authority in his voice made him uneasy. He made no comment about the 'Mister' appelation this time.

"Hey, what is it?" asked A-20, seemly curious, "Is this some kind or event or what?"

The man turned his armored head to the girl and Sora had the serious impression he could see strands of his irritation coming out of his helmet for being interupted.

"The 'event' would be your association with a wanted figure of The World." he clarified. He seemt to eye them through his blind helmet..

Sora's eyes narowed. How did the admins discovered about his connection? Unless...He took a quick glance at the pink-haired girl. Was it something else? Who could have both links to himself and such a newbie?

"Association?" wondered the girl aloud, "I'm a solo player. I dont have associations, people just think I'm too weird for that." she said frankly.

"Would've never guessed..." mutered the PK as he shelted his weapons. He really felt like Pking her now, but knew this would be stupid to do so. If he had a chance later maybe...

Although, her presence might help him a little, he realised as he noticed the Long Arm was starting to lose patience at her retort. At least she was a distraction. He still wondered though... what aquitance did he have who could share such an idiotic companion? What aquitance with enough troubles to have the System administrators on his back? They _were_ Stystem admins, weren't they? with the white field and all...

"We were informed however," the admin said, impatience building in his voice, "that you were having a contact with the suspect fourty-six hours from now on the Lambda server. And you," he turned to Sora, "people on the Delta server said they saw you with a red-clad Twin Blade in Mac Anu a while ago."

Sora felt a weight on his stomach. So, that's what it was... 'Of course', he realised with dark irony 'only a light head like this guy can tolerate the annoing pink weirdo!' He probably hadn't realised however, how much trouble he could bring to her. Not only that, did this mean he had been right about him being banned before? He heard it was possible for outlaw players to be. But he never would have guessed the 'all goody, no Pking' red guy was one of them. And now, he was in deep water because of his relation with the boy.

" Oh! You mean that red guy?" the pink-haired girl smiled."He is cool, had been the first and only to stay in a party with me!" nobody in the field seemed to wonder why he was the only one. "That's too bad though..." her grin fadded. " When that creepy half-guy and the monsters came, I had to disband 'cause I was gonna die! Well, it's only after I learned there were resurrecting thingies in the game..." she blushed.

"What 'half-guy' are you refering to?" the Long Arm asked sharply, "Explain!"

"Huh? Well, you see," she answered causualy, " I decided to ask him to form a party 'cause I thought his name was cool like mine! I wondered why he chose it... Anyway," she continued quickly as she saw the man glaring at her, " we were both in the field when there was some scream. We went to see and this all patched up guy was here."

"Patched up?" Sora asked. He was starting to wonder if this red-clad boy didn't kept some important things to him.

"Yeah" A-20 acquiesced, "that's the only way I can describ it. I was seriously freaked out." she confessed, "But this "K" guy wasn't!" there was a gleam in her closed eyes. " He just talked to the other like it was normal."

"What did they talk about?" the admin questioned.

"I'm not sure I got everything," she admited, "they were talking about "should" and "shouldn't" or things like that..."

"What?" the admin looked perplexed. Sora felt all his thoughts messed up. This guy was a weirdo, alright.

"Yeah, and then, they talked about what he knew and what "she" didn't knew or something."

"She? what "she"?" the admin was loosing patience.

"Heck if I know!"

As both of them were talking, Sora kept silent. It was starting to come to him again...what this 'Kite' said to him as he woke up. He was talking about a "she" then. And it seemed like he was expecting Sora himself to know about it... What could this mean?

"That's enough!" the man' s voice interrupted his thoughts. "Are you stating this is your only contact with the outlaw?"

"He is an outlaw?" the female Twin Blade asked.

The admin was fuming, but decided to ignore her question completly and focused on the male Twin Blade. He felt sweats under his headset. This was bad, the way he looked at him reminded him of his mother' s when he angered her.

"I need your testimony now, Mr Sora." he felt an icy cold feeling at his world. " What is your relationship with the outlaw?"

"I'd like some enlightment first please _Mr_ the administrator," he just wasn't going to be used by those can-heads, no matter who they were. "you are clearly stating that this red-claded player is an outlaw character, however you never told us how this was the case. Care to explain?"

For a moment, the man looked so taken aback by his attitude that Sora wondered if he would even answer. But then, he smirked almost as nastily as him as he started speaking.

"Oh, but when did I ever said we looked for an outlaw _player_, Mr Sora?"

'Huh? what?' Now, this was new. What was this tone about? he didn't liked it at all. In the back ground, he heard one of the Long Arm, a woman, say in a low voice: "Dont!" The smirk of the man grew wider, but something changed in his attitude when he talked again.

"All you need to know," he stared at both player, "is that this PC is a threat to the proper operating of The World and that we would like a word with him."

"...And how exactly is he a threat to the proper operating of The World?" the green-haired Twin Blade asked cautiously.

"That, Mr Sora, is none of your concern." he stated. "All we can confirm you is that his character' s Datas is violating all player's agreements" he made a snobbish face. " _You_ probably violated some yourself. However, considering the help you can provide us, we agree to clear your previous case on the condition that you cooperate with us."

The Sora character standed still for a while, the time for his young player to remove the accumulated sweat from his front head. This was bad for sure. Out of every assocations who came after him, it had to be the admins who caught him! His acount would be deleted for sure if he did not do something about it! But...what about the 'Kite' old man? It's not like he had anything against betraying him, but what about the Key? And the weird dungeon? If Kite' s acount was deleted, he would lose a precious lead.

"We are waiting for your answer Mr Sora." the man said. "All you have to do is contact him for us and ask him to come here."

This made Sora's curiousity perk. "Are you telling me you can't do it yourself?"

He could see his mouth frown. "As we already stated, he is violating a large number of user's agreement."

"Then, what make you think _I'll_ be able to contact him?"

"Stop playing with us!" he ordered, " we know you have his member address. Send him a message!"

Sora was ready to answer when he was interrupted. "Then I can try to contact him myself, right?"

Every faces turned to the pink haired girl, she grinned with her foxy eyes.

"You are willing to do it?" asked the admin, apparently not very convinced.

"Of course!" she smiled. "I dont want him to have troubles, but if he is violating the law, then it can't be helped."

"Fine then." the man looked more relaxed. "Just send him a message with the Keywords of the field in it. Be sure he arrives here."

"O.K.!" at this, her character stood still as she was tipping to him.

Everyone went silent in the field. Sora felt some dark tensions building around him. He really did not want to let the red-claded teen get caught by the knights, but what else could he do now? All he coud try was managing to get out of trouble himself. It was bothersome for the old guy, but he sure would not risk his freedom and acount for him. He looked darkly at the girl. The least he could do was avenging his partner later by Pking her. He was starting to hate her, though he was actualy glad he didn't have to sell Kite himself.

After a while, A-20 started to move again, but a beeping sound interrupted her as she started to speak.

"What is it?" asked the admin. "Is he comming?"

"That's weird..." the girl mutered, "it looks like he didn't get it."

"What?"

"Exactly what I said." asserted the girl, "I sent him the flashmail, but it bounced back. It seems he didn't get it."

"Quit mocking me girl." the man looked really annoyed.

"But I'm not joking!"

For a moment, the girl and the man were arguing again. Sora went still to look at his options and send Kite a flashmail himself, his heart pounding. He had been right to consider the red-claded boy strange, but this was getting out of league even for him. Who was this 'she' he was refering? What was he doing in this dungeon the time he first met him? And what was he seeking for? And what about his unreadable name? And about the flashmail which couldn't be...

He klicked O.K. and the message was sent safely.

_What..?_

He waited a moment for some anomaly to happen, but there was nothing for about thirty second, before a beeping sound reached his ears. He quickly opened the menu and saw an all corrupted message from "K+#2". It was an answer to his own...

He had answered.

_Which meant..._

_"You!"_

Ryou jumped behind his computer and made his character look at the armored man.

"You tipped a flashmail, didn't you? So, did you managed to sent it?"

His heart beats were more prononced. This was now the chance to get his partner out of their range. He was not sure how he could contact the red-clad Twin Blade when the other girl could not but he did not really care about some bug. Unless...He peeked at the pink haired girl and saw a slight smile going up on her face. Could it be that...?

"Well?" the man was holding his weapon slighly higher than before. "Answer!"

He stared at him, his face unreadable, before a smirk started to come up to his lips. "Well," he switched to his usual dark tone," it seems our dear newbie friend wasn't wrong after all."

For a moment, everything was silent again. The man was trembling, as if to contain some interior rage before turning to the female Twin Blade.

"Do it again!" he ordered.

Without any protest, A-20 went to type, but she shook her head just after.

"Nope, nothing new, sorry."

"If you are really a newbie, then do you really know how to send a mail?

"Of course! I _did_ read the manual!"

"Why you..."

"Enough of this!" a female Long Arm on the background interrupted. "You can clearly see those two have no idea about the... _suspect's_ location and no mean of contacting him."

The raging man turned to her. "But you can clearly see those two are lying!"

"I understand that you dont trust the Player Killer, but there is no reason for you to suspect the girl," the woman continued, "She did what you say and she barely started the game. They didn't even knew each other yet. Your were with me when they arrived, you should know that."

The man gritted his teeth, but said nothing. Sora felt victorious.

"You see _Mr_ the administrator, there is nothing else to do now, nobody can contact him. Not even you."

At seeing his fumming face, he wondered if he hadn't done too much of this. But then, the man just sighed and faced the two of them.

"Very well. I consent in saying that your knowledge is far inferior to our own, and that you're not hidding anything suspicious. However," his tone lowered," you must be aware that this particular _player_, known by the nickname of "K" is now a confirmed wanted character. If we discover that one of you helped him in _any_ ways, your account will be deleted on the spot. Is this clear?"

Both of them nodded but Sora had a frown on his face. What could the strange Twin Blade have done in the past to be looked for and so intensively by the admins? He had never heard of such measures before.

"Alright then," the other Long Arm approached. "Since you proved yourself to be helpful, we wont hold any charge against you," she looked at Sora, "and, as was conclued, no "previous" charges either. But this doesn't mean any of you are safe for future ones, unterstood?"

"Of course!" the girl answered.

"This is cristal clear." the smiling PK added.

"Then, you can go now," she smiled slighly, "the barrier is up, go back to town."

Both Twin Blades nodded and warped, leaving behind them the angry man and the other knights.

Three circles of light revealed a single character appearing in the root town. He looked around and noticed the strong green-tatooed warrior waving to him up on the highest staires of the big and deserted place of Lia Fail. His rare spear on his hand, Albireo proceeded toward the legendary "Orca of the Azure Sea" who beared a large grin on his face.

"Hey!" called the joyous player.

The other nodded and looked around before asking:

"Balmung isn't here?"

"Couldn't come," explained Orca, "had some stuff to do."

"I see."

"So," the Blademaster started, "how come you're so late? Why did you call us? You said it was something about the recent events, right?"

"Indeed," again, the Long Arm observed the town, but they were alone. " I appologise for making you wait, but I had some interesting encounter in the way."

"Interesting?" the warrior was curious now, "like who?"

For a moment, it looked like Albireo was hesitating, but he sighed and spoke:

"It has something to do with the recent events."

"Uh? What with the change of subject?"

"I didn't changed the subject." the tanned man answered, "I'm just starting at the begining."

"Oh," Orca was disturbed by his manner, "all right..."

"You're probably wondering what made me call you both," he now didn't seemed as assured as he normaly was. "the truth is... I'm not very sure myself." before the other could ask anything, Albireo spoke again. " All I know is that there have been some strange things happening since five days ago. The system admins... I was told they investigated..."

Orca said nothing. He had the feeling Albireo wasn't an average player for a while now. He was most likely affinitated with the admins in a way or another, though he wasn't going to question him. The other continued:

"The searches proved themself to be futile, however there have been some strange characters sighted from that time. Before the glitches, there even was some strange cat..._player_... The administrators think he may be the cause of it all."

"A cat?" Orca wondered, "A hacker? you think he's the cause of this?"

"There is no proof of this yet." he admited, "But most likely."

"Was he the "interesting encounter" you had?"

"No, he wasn't, but he is definitely linked."

"Who?" Orca had a feeling this story was getting slightly complicated.

"I'm not sure how to call him," he lifted slighly his spear in discomfort "I actualy first heard of him two days ago, a player in the Lambda server, a Wavemaster, told me he he heard a red-clad Twin Blade say some strange things. It ticked me a little."

"A Twin Blade? What did he say?"

"Strange things," Albireo answered, avoiding the question, "All that matter is that I saw him in Dun Loreag as I was going to look for you and there is no doubt about it, his character's datas is hacked."

"How could you tell?"

"His color's paterns were unusual for a boy Twin Blade," explained the man," he was wearing red-orange cloths and his pants had yellow desing I had never seen before."

"I see," Orca thought back to the red player he saw not to long ago. Was it a Twin Blade? He didn't saw...

"There is something else," added the Long Arm, "his name was hacked too, it was unreadable, only the first letter was."

"Really? A hacked name?" Orca looked at the other man in surprise, "Why would a hacker do that to their name? I can understand somewhat the hacked skin patern, as it can be passed for some rare update, but a hacked name is a dead give away the player is a hacker!"

"That was why it intrigued me." admited Albireo, "however, what I witnessed afterward made me wonder if I did have real reasons to suspect that..." he stopped suddenly, as if realising he said too much.

"What was that?" Orca asked. "Why did you stop? What suspiscion?"

The Long Arm stared at him for a while before finaly speaking, much more seriously than before.

"Orca, have you met that boy before?"

"Wha..?" he was taken aback for a moment, "how would I know a Hacker? What is this question?"

He felt as if he was talking for nothing. The man just did not seem to listen. He had this far-away look players had when they were doing something else while playing. A minute later, he heard a beeping sound signaling the arrival of a new message. Surprised, it took him a while to realise Albireo was back in the game and had started talking.

"Five days ago, this is what I recieved, on the exact time the glitches happened."

"What is this?"

"A mail."

"I can see that," noted Orca, "from who?"

"I don't know."

"An anonymous mail?" Orca pondered.

"No, it's not."

"Eh?" the Blademaster looked at the Long Arm strangely.

"There is a name," clarified Albireo, "only it's unreadable."

"Unreadable...like the Twin Blade' s name?" Orca finaly understood now, " You think this Hacker was part of those who caused the glitches." he reasonned.

"I dont think he is the one who wrote the mail, since the corrupted characters are different," Albireo continued, "however, he might be part of some plan... by who, I don't know..."

"What makes you think that? "The warrior asked, but the Long Arm kept silent. Talking with Albireo was really tiresome, it seemed as if he knew much more than him and refused to spill out anything. It was probably the case actually, Orca had realised. He started looking through the message. Most of the characters did not seemed to make any sense... unless it was some code...

As he was trying to read the strange corrupted text, Albireo talked again:"So then, how is your investigation progressing?"

Orca sighed at the switch of toppic, but answered nonetheless. "Scarcely, barely any field we looked in contained anything worth our troubles."

"Is that so..." the Long Arm drifted off again.

"But I still don't get it," Orca continued, his eyes still on the message, "It didn't look like anything I've seen before... when the Admins asked us to cover those bugs, I thought this was just a small matter, but now, " it looked like the characters were replacing letters, if he could just find which ones..." some of those glitched dungeons lasted with weird rooms... nothing like I saw before."

"Were there PCs in those rooms?"

"Uh, what?" forgetting the mail a moment, he turned his charater' head to look directly at Alibero, "what kind of strange question is that?"

"Nothing important" he replied curtly as he turned away, "I'm sorry but I have to part with you for now, I might have to call you back later."

As he started to walk away, Orca called him: "What is that all about? Why are you suddenly so interested in our investigation? Why are you letting me have one of your personal mail? This isn't like you to involve people like that!"

Albireo shot a look at Orca."I believed that you were already involved." At the suprised look the warrior gave him, he asked: "Have you looked throught the hole mail?"

Surprised, the player looked scrupulously at the whole mail. As he did so, he holded his breath as he saw the characters from the third line starting to the bottom. At that line, he could clearly see one of the few uncorrupted words. And it was "Orca". _His _screen name.

"Balmung is also mentioned", stated the tanned man as he noticed the green-tatooed man expression, "only his own name is corrupted. I'm still looking for others that might be into this."

Again, Albireo turned to leave, but he was not stopped this time. The other was still entirely focused on the text, his player's hand were shacking and he had bitten into his lips. Having his screen name written in this was something, but what he saw now...

He did not have to look intensly into the message to notice a very disturbing detail, right next to his screen name, he could see it. It was a single uncorrupted character from a word. One that he could perfectly read as "yasu".

It was the first character from his name.

His _real_ name.

Unaware of the shock he caused to the strong looking player, the Long Arm proceeded to the gate. He had work to do.

As this conversation had barely started, two very relieved Twin Blade were warping back to the root town Dun Loareg. Though he had been shacken by his encounter with the admins, Sora could not help but feel victorious at how it turned out. He had managed to completely fool the guys, it was something to be proud of. He glanced at the petite girl at his right. Well, he may not have been alone into the deception.

"Finaly we're out! she exclaimed, "I could barely hold it back then!"

Sora smirked at her. "Well, you sure seemt fine to me."

"Really? You think so?" The girl smiled hopefully.

"Nope!" he snorted, "your play was horrible! but I guess it was enough to convince those dumbasses." he eyed her, mocking her crestfallen look. She had merits for a newbie, he would not forget that.

"I hope I helped him at least," she muttered, "I know I was no good, but I just wanted to do everything I could."

"You could have been banned from the game, had I denounced you." he playfully sang her in his usual dark tone.

"Oh, I don't really care about the game." she assured.

"You don't?" he quiered.

"No, really," she explained, "I only came here for a personal challenge and this game has been pretty boring for me over all." she smiled again, "I only found it entertaining the one time when I was with this "K" guy, so it wouldn't really be interesting for me if the only guy which had acknowleged my play was banned."

"...I see." Sora was not very sure what to make of this way of thinking, but he guessed it did not really matter.

"Well, I guess I'll just log out if nothing else interesting happens," she eyed him, "unless you're willing to play with me?"

"Do not count on it." he answered plainly. He was not even interested into having her member address, "you saw how those guys were? It's even better if you forget completely about your encounter with the red guy and my own. You'll just be brought into tons of problems in which you'll never get out." He owed her at least a tranquility time in the game, and she _was_ a newbie. _Useless_."Forget about this other guy's weird flashmail too."

"Uh? weird flashmail?" she asked, "what are you talking about?"

"...You _did_ sent him a flashmail, right?"

"Well, I did send flashmails."

"... And didn't he answer you?"

"Ahem, that is... " she scratched the back of her head in embarassment.

Sora looked at her dully for a while before he finally spoke: " Don't tell me you _really_ don't know how to send flashmails."

"Ah, no! I do know how to do that, it's just," Se looked at him and smiled widely, "I just have yet to figure out how to send them to other people than myself!"

Before he could do anything more than staring at her, she had already logged out. After a moment, he shook his head. He didn't know himself how someone could be dumb enough to not manage to send mails to others, but could still send mails to themself. He looked around the Theta server, but the old guy could not be found. Too bad. He might have to send another mail. As he tipped and sent it though, he frowned at the lack of answer. Was the red-clad guy busy or something? He tried again, but there were no answers. After a dozen of minute had passed, he started to wonder if the Twin Blade had not just logged out. It was too bad if it was the case. He really wanted to ask him some interesting things.

Feeling quite annoyed, the PK turned to the Chaos Gate and selected random keywords. This discussion would have to wait after all.

He purposedly ignored the chilly feeling he felt which screamed to him that something was seriously wrong in all this.

* * *

Kamui doesn't make sense here, a that time, considering she was a grunt...

I don't want to let this story unfinished, so I'll try to recal all I need to finish this.

Thanks for reading and review as you wish.


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